Jose Mourinho took the blame for the bust-up between Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min - describing the row as "beautiful".
Spurs' 1-0 win over Everton on Monday night was overshadowed by an astonishing clash between Lloris and Son, which involved pushing and shoving before the two were separated by team-mates.
Tottenham keeper Lloris admitted later he had been "annoyed" at Son after the South Korea ace failed to track back in the build-up to a chance for Everton.
And Mourinho said he was to blame for the incident - because he asked his Tottenham players to be "more demanding of each other".
"It's beautiful," said the Spurs boss.
"It's probably as a consequence of our meetings. If you want to blame someone for that, it's me.
"I was critical of my boys - they were not critical enough with themselves. I asked them to be more demanding of each other."
Mourinho said Lloris was simply imploring Son to put more effort into the defensive side of his game - and said his skipper's reaction showed he had been listening to his manager's call for higher standards.
"Son is an amazing kid, everybody likes Son but the captain told him you have to do more and give more to the team," said Mourinho.
"It's something needed for the team to grow up - to grow up you need big personalities. When you have that reaction I had no doubts."
Lloris and Son were seen hugging as they came out for the second half, and the French keeper insisted there was no problem between the pair.
Speaking after the game, he told Sky Sports: "It just belongs to the changing room. Outside you can say whatever you want. What happened is just part of football sometimes.
"There is no problem at all, you could see after the game we were fine.
"I think to concede a chance a few seconds before half-time because we didn't make a press annoyed me but yeah, that's football."
Michael Keane's first-half own goal gave Tottenham a much-needed three points which moved them up to eighth in the Premier League and back in the Europa League race.
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