Quite perversely, I bet you've convinced yourself that's the truth.
Face it - if he was playing for someone else, and he did that to one of your players, you'd be livid. As it is, you're defending a coward, a hypcrite and a liar. Well done, you.
Sorry, but is there ANYONE who thinks that Barton was successful in making it look accidental?
As has been said many times, if it was accidental, his reaction (petulant, pathetic and deliberate) was that of a person who has major problems coming to terms with so badly losing in a one-on-one...
From memory, the elbow was on the blind side of the ref, so I could understand if he didn't see it - though that doesn't make the linesman (who wasn't on the blind side) blind too.
Fact is - Barton received treatment for an elbow he never got. Therefore, how could the referee have seen it and...