Mark Noble has quashed any rumours of bad blood between himself and Paul Pogba following their clash in West Ham United’s goalless draw with Manchester United on Thursday evening.
In a contest that had little riding on the final result and 90 minutes that served up even less, the middle of the park pairing’s collision towards the end of the encounter turned out to be one of the more memorable moments.
Reckon sticking your head in a pitch side bubble machine, then being force fed a sack of jellied eels while being suspended from Tower Bridge naked, in January, at 3am with gangnam style on a loop, would be preferable to watching West Ham 0 MUFC 0 again.
— Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) May 10, 2018
After being left unimpressed with a challenge from the Frenchman, the Hammers captain jumped to his feet before charging toward his opposite number and wrapping his hands around the Red Devils man’s neck and face ahead of eventually being pushed away.
There have been several calls since for Noble to face retrospective punishment for his actions after both escaped with only a yellow card from referee Jon Moss.
However, after the dust had settled, the Englishman took to Twitter to reveal there were no hard feelings between the two, stating: “What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch @paulpogba,” which was followed by a thumbs up emoji.
After the game, neither David Moyes or Jose Mourinho saw the clash as anything of note, and while speaking to BBC Sport, both were quite happy to brush the incident aside as an occupational hazard.
“It was hardly worth talking about [the incident at the end]. The referee handled it well,” Moyes said.
Before Mourinho added: “I was watching the images and Paul and Noble looked in love. Hugs and kisses and changing shirts (at full-time). It was good. It was competitive.”
Let’