Alan Pardew shrugged off the war of words between the two of them in Newcastle United’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal.
The pair were involved in a series of heated exchanges throughout the game, which was decided by Thomas Vermaelen’s 95th-minute goal.
Striker Van Persie – who cancelled out Hatem Ben Arfa’s 14th-minute opening strike – was unhappy with the time his Dutch countryman and international team-mate was taking for his goal kicks.
And the simmering row boiled over again in the wake of Vermaelen’s winner, with van Persie suggesting the goalkeeper should still take his time.
Krul went to confront van Persie after the final whistle, but was stopped by goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman, who led him to the tunnel, where there were more verbals between the two sets of players.
Alan Pardew: “It’s just unfortunate.
“There were words between them at the start about this and that.
“It was a last-minute goal. It happens.
"If we’d scored in the last minute, I’m sure one or two of them would have been upset with us.”
Asked about van Persie, Hatem Ben Arfa said: “He’s not our problem.
“We can’t waste energy on him, it must all go on those last 10 games, and we must concentrate on getting as many points from the 30 as we can.
“That’s all finished – we now just have to keep our heads up high.
“There are 10 hard games ahead of us.”
Source: FOOTYMAD
