Paul Lambert admitted that Christian Benteke deserved to be sent off for slapping Ryan Mason in the face, but the Aston Villa manager claimed “my daughter can throw a harder forearm than that” and suggested the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder was fortunate to escape a red card for his part in the fracas.
With Villa leading 1-0 at the time of Benteke’s dismissal, courtesy of Andreas Weimann’s early goal, and looking reasonably comfortable against a disappointing Tottenham team, Lambert claimed that the red card changed the course of the match.
Benteke reacted angrily after Mason leaned forward and put his head into the Villa striker’s face following a skirmish on the touchline. The Belgium international raised his hand and slapped Mason in the face, prompting players from both teams to intervene in an ugly melee in front of the two dugouts.
Neil Swarbrick, the referee, gave Benteke a straight red card but Mason’s behaviour went unpunished. Forced to play the final 26 minutes with 10 men, Villa looked like they were going to hold out only for Spurs to strike twice late on.
Nacer Chadli equalised in the 84th minute and Harry Kane, who was unfortunate to start on the substitutes’ bench again, scored in the 90th minute with a deflected free-kick.
It was Kane’s ninth goal of the season and condemned Villa to a sixth successive league defeat. To compound matters for Villa, Benteke will now face an automatic three-match suspension, causing him to miss the Premier League games against West Ham United, Southampton and Burnley.
Asked whether the result felt like a kick in the teeth, Lambert said: “Very much so, I don’t think we deserved that. The sending off, no doubt, changed the course of the game. I never saw the incident at the time, there was that much handbags [going on]. I’ve seen it since. I can’t condone what Christian did, lifting his hand, but also he was provoked. If you go back a frame in the video, you see the lad putting his head in Christian’s face.
“I understand why Christian did it, but you won’t get away with it, lifting your hand. But I think my daughter can throw a harder forearm than that.
“I was a player myself, so I understand the emotion and the adrenalin rush of it. And if somebody puts their head in your face, your natural instinct is to push them back, but in football and sport you won’t get away with it. But I thought if you’re going to look at it [the slap in the face], then look at the stages of why it happened.”
Lambert admitted that Benteke, who has only recently returned following a long spell on the sidelines with a ruptured achilles, will need to learn from the incident. “I think he’s only 23, he’ll learn that when he gets older. I just said to him that I can’t condone what you did, but I can stick up for him in other parts of the fracas because I saw what happened.”
Just prior to the Benteke dismissal, Jan Vertonghen was booked for a two-footed tackle on Ashley Westwood.
“I think it was really high, I think it was at throat height, so I think there is a case for that [being a sending off],” said Lambert. “I thought the game started to overspill, when those sort of things were happening, there was a few challenges like that. It became more feisty.”
Mauricio Pochettino, who claimed that he did not see the Benteke incident, said that he was delighted with a win that lifts Spurs up to eighth and only three points off the top four. The Spurs manager also acknowledged that Kane was making a strong case to be given a starting berth in the Premier League.
“He is an important player. It is true the performance like in the last game and today, he maybe deserves to play in the Premier League more. It was a great goal, and a happy goal for him and the team.”
