TNT Sports expert Peter Crouch said West Ham United forward Mohammed Kudus “lost his head” in a sending-off incident which saw him hit Tottenham Hotspur players Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr in the face.
The incident was a moment of frustration in a difficult afternoon for Julen Lopetegui’s side. Kudus’ opening goal in the first half was ultimately cancelled out by a superb second-half Spurs flurry as the north London side romped to 4-1 victory.The Hammers’ matters were made worse by Kudus’ dismissal four minutes from time. The 24-year-old initially kicked Van de Ven twice on the ground before confronting the Spurs defender with a slap to the face.A mass brawl soon broke out, and Richarlison also ended up on the ground after Kudus was pushed into the Brazil striker by Spurs’ Pape Matar Sarr, to which the West Ham player retaliated by lashing out again.
Crouch ultimately felt Kudus “lost his head” in the incident, and praised Van de Ven’s reticence in the aftermath.Completely lost his head,” Crouch said. “I think Van de Ven did well to not react, because he stamped on him a couple times before, tried to kick the ball at him, stood on him a couple times then he gets a slap in the face.
“Richarlison goes down, somehow, it’s all kicking off. He had to go. It was a complete loss of his head.”
Former Spurs midfielder Glenn Hoddle agreed that referee Andy Madley had “no option” but to brandish red on Kudus after a VAR review, and praised the referee’s use of the reviewing system.
“He had to go in the end didn’t he,” Hoddle said. “It was the third or the fourth slap and the referees looked at it.
“I think the referee wanted to be sensible and not send anyone off because you have to have eyes on the back of your head there to see everything that’s going on.
“So he’s thought, I haven’t seen it 100% so I’ll give a yellow, then VAR goes ‘you have a look at what he’s done,’ and he’s given him no option.
“If players do that with VAR you’re going to get sent off.”
West Ham have suffered a difficult start to the season under their new manager Lopetegui, and their task of making a surge towards the more fruitful end of the Premier League table has been made harder by the three-match suspension of Kudus that will ensue.
Les Ferdinand said it will be a blow for West Ham as the Ghana international was their “best player”, and feels the ban should not be extended any further than three matches.
“The frightening thing is he did all that and he was probably their best player and they’re going to lose him for three games now,” he said.
“I think the sending off is enough punishment, it was slaps – it wasn’t anything else.”