Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has apologised over his rant at Manchester City boss Manuel Pelligrini during his side’s 2-0 loss yesterday, the Guardian reports.

The former West Ham boss was caught on camera shouting abuse at the City manager during a high tempered match, in which Cheick Tiote’s first half strike was disallowed.

The incident already had tempers flaring before Pardew insisted he was provoked by the Chilean manager and subsequently retaliated.

The victory now takes Manchester City top of the table whereas it was a harsh defeat for Newcastle, who thought they’ve equalised Edin Dzeko's opener, but was chalked off with Yoan Gouffran deemed offside.

Alan Pardew felt the decision to disallow the goal was harsh, pointing that although Yoan Gouffran could have been blocking Joe Hart’s view, it was irrelevant due to the ferocity of the shot.

"Cheik's scored a goal that Joe Hart's not going to reach," Pardew claimed. "It was such a clean hit it was going in the top corner.

“Hart's vision was not impaired by Yoan. He [Mike Jones] got that wrong and it's a massive call. He's gone on a real tiny technicality here and I think he's wrong. To make a call like that, a player has to be clearly interfering.

"When I spoke to the referee he actually thought it had got deflected, which it hadn't – it was a clean strike. It's hard, it all happened so quickly, but a call like that is going to affect the game. It was all getting a little bit heated. It affected the players."

Manuel Pelligrini disagrees and thought it was the right call, also stating that Newcastle defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa should have been sent off for a rash challenge on Samir Nasri.

"The referee was correct," he said. "There should have been a red card for the foul, Nasri has a serious injury in the knee.

"I can't understand how he wasn't sent off. We didn't have any help off the ref today. It was a very tough game with a lot of pushing and grabbing."

Manchester City will hope Arsenal fail to beat Aston Villa tonight to keep the Citizens top of the Premier League table.