Ange Postecoglou and Micky van de Ven question FA over Tottenham fine for West Ham clash | OneFootball

Spurs have been fined £20,000 after accepting charge of failing to control their players

Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou and centre-half Micky van de Ven have been left bemused after the club was fined for their part in the melee at the end of Sunday's derby against West Ham, which led to Mohammed Kudus being sent off for the visitors.

Kudus, who had opened the scoring for the visitors, initially appeared to kick van de Ven while the Dutchman was on the turf, prompting the defender to push the Hammers' forward.

Spurs have admitted a charge of failing to control their players and been fined £20,000 by the Football Association, while the cases of West Ham and Kudus are ongoing.

Asked for his take on a 'feisty game', Postecoglou said: "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.

Mohammed Kudus was sent off for twice raising his hands

Getty Images

"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.

"I didn’t feel there was anything edgy in that game at all. Just a player who lost his composure for a second, Kudus, which I think is not really like him anyways when I’ve seen him as a player but it happens.

"For the most part, I thought there was a fair bit of restraint. If there was anything more, there is plenty of video evidence to charge players with. I guess the look of it is not great but I don’t think it was anything untoward."

Van de Ven fell the the ground after being struck by Kudus, who also pushed Sarr and caught Spurs forward Richarlison in the resulting ruck.

"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," Van de Ven said.

“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.

"He literally punched me in the face and I went down. To be honest, I don’t know what happened afterwards - I didn’t really see what happened afterwards - but that is the situation. The FA said we need to get fined for this. It is not how I think about it. If I think about it, it would be a different situation."

Pushed on whether he felt Tottenham's fine was unfair, Van de Ven added: "It's difficult to say, my reaction was not good and also I was a bit mad so from my side it was not really good but I think it was from both ways."

Tottenham face AZ Alkmaar at home in the Europa League on Thursday after winning their opening two games in the competition against Qarabag and Ferencvaros.