Joey Barton's knock-out blow and Ronaldo's cheek

Joey Barton re-established himself as the baddest of bad boys at Newcastle last night with a full on punch at Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen.

The emergence of Andy Carroll has shifted the spotlight away from serial bad boy Barton but last night’s incident has already attracted an FA charge for violent conduct.

If found guilty Barton is facing a three game ban that could kick off with the weekend match against Fulham.

Barton has been involved in scraps on and off the park since he emerged into the game at Manchester City but has been relatively low profile since Newcastle returned to the Premiership.

That all changed last night at St James Park when he landed a right jab into the chest of the Blackburn midfielder.

Although there are plenty of ‘handbag’ incidents in football it’s rare to see a proper punch thrown on the field.

Pedersen appeared to accidentally brush shoulders with Barton who turned round then with his face contorted landed a punch straight onto the Norwegian’s chest.

Over in Spain Christiano Ronaldo has caused a stir with a piece of Lubo Moravcik-like cheek in the derby win over Athletico Madrid.

With just ten minutes left to play and Real comfortable on their two goal half-time lead the former Manchester United hero decided on the unorthodox.

Showboating is frowned upon as being disrespectful to opponents but Ronaldo has never bothered with convention.

After his initial cross was cleared Ronaldo watched the flight of the ball then positioned himself to pass the ball with his lower back to a team-mate. Possibly in shock at the cheek of his team-mate Sergio Ramos then headed wide when presented with an open goal.

After the match Atletico players complained about the pass, with Jose Antonio Reyes calling it an act of “provocation” and Alvaro Dominguez labelling it as “silliness”.

However, Ronaldo brushed the criticism aside telling his Twitter followers that: ‘Sometimes you have to be creative’.

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