- Mohammed Kudus was initially shown a yellow card before the referee overturned his decision
- Winger will miss three games, but Mike Dean says he deserves a longer ban
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Mohammed Kudus could face a longer ban after being sent off for violent conduct against Tottenham.
The attacker saw red in the 86th minute yesterday after he lashed out at Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr.
Kudus was originally shown a yellow card by referee Andrew Madley, but this was upgraded to a straight red upon VAR review. The attacker aimed two kicks at Van de Ven while the defender was on the ground, then pushed the Spurs man in the face after he stood up to confront him. Despite his teammates’ attempts to retrain him, Kudus then also pushed Sarr in the face.
Violent conduct offenses carry a minimum three-match ban, but former referee Mike Dean said on Sky Sports that Kudus should receive a harsher punishment.
“If you look back at the footage, this is the first one he could have been sent off for, and hopefully he was,” Dean said.
Mohammed Kudus could face a longer ban after being sent off for violent conduct against Spurs
Kudus saw red in the 86th minute after lashing out at Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr
Mike Dean says the winger could be ‘fooled twice’ and face further punishment
‘Hopefully on the second occasion the FA will take retrospective action so that he is punished twice in my opinion because he punched two different players in the face twice.’
Joey Barton was handed a nine-match ban for three separate violent confrontations when he was sent off for Queens Park Rangers against Manchester City in 2012.
West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui claimed not to have seen the incident but said he would speak to his player in the coming days.
“We need to talk, but today is not the day,” Lopetegui said. ‘I’m sure he will be aware that he can improve his response at the moment because it’s not good for him, it’s not good for the club and for the team. But I can’t say anything more because I don’t see the action.’
Kudus will now not feature for West Ham until after the next international break, with the striker guaranteed to miss at least games with Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Everton.