Former Newcastle United and Crystal Palace head coach Alan Pardew criticised Manchester City all-star Erling Haaland for his poor performance against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

Pardew said that Haaland looked ‘unemotional at times’ and accused last season’s top goalscorer in the Premier League of looking uninterested during such a vital game.

City were defeated by Arsenal at the weekend – despite the game being held at a stalemate for most of the encounter, Gabriel Martinelli struck late on to give Mikel Arteta’s men the three points.

What did Alan Pardew say regarding Erling Haaland against Arsenal?

Speaking to TalkSPORT, Pardew said: “Funnily enough, right at the end he gets involved with someone on the sidelines as he’s walking off the pitch. Actually on the pitch, he looked unemotional at times, you know, like he wasn’t in the game.

“Sometimes when you are a striker, I’ve had many strikers over the years that come to me and say ‘it doesn’t feel like I was in the game, gaffer’, you know, ‘I didn’t get enough of the ball’.

“You kind of get emotionally detached and I think that’s where he is with City at the moment. He looks like he’s not in the game enough to bring the best out of him.”

Why was did Haaland have a poor game for Manchester City at the weekend?

Pardew is on the money in his assessment of Haaland – he was noticeably off the boil against the Gunners, but much of this praise should come down to how effectively Arsenal nullified the Norwegian’s attacking threat.

For the duration of the encounter, Haaland was kept quiet by a combination of William Saliba and Declan Rice. When playing off the shoulder of the last man, he was met by Saliba – when he dropped deep to try and collect the ball, he was harangued by Rice.

The Gunners knew they had to do whatever they could do keep Haaland quiet – and they succeeded. City were unable to find an alternative outlet for their goals, despite the presence of Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden, succumbing to their second successive defeat.