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Football

10th May 2018

Mark Noble may have to face the music over Paul Pogba incident

It was the most exciting thing to happen all game

Reuben Pinder

Mark Noble would back himself against anyone

Manchester United travelled to West Ham tonight in the most predictable 0-0 of all time, with both teams playing at a leisurely pace in true end of season style.

Bar the occasional long shot from Pogba, and one from Shaw which prompted José Mourinho to jump out his chair and give the young left-back an earful (how DARE he venture forward and have a pop), very little happened of note.

The most exciting moment of the game came late on. Paul Pogba, as he tends to do quite often, was found surrounded by opposition players with no options, and subsequently lost the ball. He felt he had been fouled, but the referee waved play on. In frustration, Pogba then tripped Mark Noble, who was running into space away from the cluster of bodies.

Noble did not appreciate the lazy, cynical tackle from Pogba, but instead of remaining calm in the final minutes of the game, he exploded. He was untethered and his rage knew no bounds. Noble jumped up and launched himself, chest first, into Paul Pogba, who was unmoved by Noble’s best efforts. The West Ham captain then resorted to grabbing Pogba’s by the throat but that failed to achieve anything either.

It seemed not only unnecessary but overly ambitious of Noble to square up to someone almost twice his size. People enjoyed mocking his attempt to bully Pogba.

To his credit, Pogba’s resistance to react was admirable. It is very surprising that Noble managed to escape with just a yellow card, though. That didn’t go down so well.

Thankfully, because you know, we hate to see this sort of thing, they made up at full time.