According to The Standard, Tottenham have been fined £20,000 by the FA following their 4-1 win over West Ham United, due to a late-game altercation between the two teams’ players.
The incident unfolded in the 82nd minute when West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus fouled Spurs defender Micky van de Ven.
The situation escalated when Kudus appeared to kick at van de Ven and then shoved both him and Pape Matar Sarr in the face. Initially, Kudus received a yellow card, but a VAR review upgraded it to a red for violent conduct.
As a result, both Tottenham and West Ham were charged by the FA for failing to control their players and ensuring they did not act in a “provocative and/or improper” manner.
Spurs accepted the charge, which led to the £20,000 fine. The Hammers received the same punishment, while Kudus faces additional disciplinary action that could extend his three-match ban.
Ange Postecoglou defends Tottenham’s conduct during the incident
In response to the FA’s decision, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou questioned the reasoning behind the fine, particularly given the context of the game.
Postecoglou pointed out that, aside from the clash involving Kudus, the match was not particularly heated. He stated that Spurs players did not act out of line, adding that their actions were mainly to protect teammates during the altercation.
The Australian said (quotes via The Standard):
“I don’t know if that is an accurate description of what I saw. That sort of incident with Kudus. Apart from that I don’t think it was that fiesty a game, I don’t think there were too many cards outside that.
“I’m not really sure what we did wrong. Yeah, there was a coming together, but a couple of our players had hit the deck by then so you would like to think we would go in and at least protect. I thought our players controlled themselves, obviously the FA felt differently.”
West Ham’s Kudus was shown a red card for his violent conduct against Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Micky van de Ven, who was directly involved in the incident, shared similar sentiments. He explained that Kudus kicked him unnecessarily during the challenge, leading to his reaction.
Van de Ven was surprised when Kudus hit him in the face, and like Postecoglou, he expressed disbelief at the FA’s decision to penalize Tottenham for the confrontation.
The Dutch defender said:
“What I can remember is that I had a duel with Mohammed Kudus, and I fell down on the ground and I had the feeling that he kicked too much through on the ball.
“He tried to kick the ball but he hit me twice, three times. I was obviously a bit mad in this situation and I stood up and I pushed him and then the situation happened from his side.”
Despite the fine, Tottenham only received one yellow card during the match, compared to West Ham’s three, reinforcing the belief within the club that their players maintained composure and acted reasonably throughout the game.
Tottenham bounce back from Brighton defeat with massive win over London rivals
It was the only fiery incident in an otherwise calm game. Kudus gave West Ham an early lead after some poor defending from Pedro Porro, but Kulusevski equalised before half-time.
Ange made a tactical tweak, taking off James Maddison at half-time and replacing him with Pape Matar Sarr, which seemed to do the trick as they went on to score 3 goals in 8 minutes in the second half to secure a 4-1 victory.
The win was the perfect response to their shock defeat at the hands of Brighton before the international break.