That poor, poor water bottle
Matt Ritchie, we can safely assume, was not best pleased to be substituted on Saturday afternoon. With the precious seconds ticking away in Newcastle United’s season opener against Tottenham Hotspur at St James’ Park, Rafa Benitez’s men found themselves trailing 2-1 to the visitors.
Benitez decided a change was needed, and sent on Christian Atsu in Ritchie’s place.
With cameras capturing the moment the former Bournemouth midfielder took his seat on the bench, it swiftly became clear he wasn’t happy with Bentiez’s decision to take him off. Second later, lenses were trained on him once again, making it obvious he was now the angriest man on Tyneside by a considerable distance.
As ever, we’d love to show you the footage, but strict broadcasting regulations for the The Greatest League In The World™ mean we’d get in bother if we did. Instead, you’ll have to make do with these screen grabs until you inevitably go and look for the actual footage somewhere on Twitter.
At first, Ritchie just appears to be having a moan to teammates…
But with every passing millisecond, his face becomes increasingly red and his mouth increasingly snarly…
Having been passed a drink, Ritchie then takes out his fury on a water bottle, instantly throwing it to the floor
Look at his face. Just look at his face…
While we can’t knock the man’s passion and dedication to his team’s cause, this, it must be said, is truly terrifying.
As it went, the substitution didn’t help Newcastle’s cause.
Having fallen behind to an early goal from Jan Vertonghen, Joselu briefly drew the home side level after 11 minutes. However, Dele Alli’s header after 18 minutes turned out to be the decisive goal of the afternoon.
Newcastle will now face their first away game of the season at newly promoted Cardiff City next Saturday.
