West Ham attacker Mohammed Kudus lost his head late in defeat to Tottenham when shoving two opponents in the face and that could lead to the FA extending his suspension retrospectively
Mohammed Kudus could be hit with an extended ban for his spectacular meltdown.
The West Ham winger, who had scored the opening goal, left three Tottenham players on the floor after losing his head in Saturday’s defeat.
He first kicked Micky van de Ven in the back before shoving the defender in the face. Kudus followed that up by pushing Pape Matar Sarr in the head, while Richarlison was knocked over after running into the Ghana international during a subsequent melee.
Kudus was sent off for violent conduct relating to the initial Van de Ven incident. But the FA might decide to punish him further – similar to when QPR ’s Joey Barton was handed a nine-game ban for three incidents against Manchester City in 2012.
West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui said he will speak to Kudus about the incident but claimed that he did not see the altercations.
“It’s not good for him, it’s not good for the club, for the team,” Lopetegui said. “But I can’t say anything more because I don’t see the action.”
Max Kilman said West Ham only had themselves to blame for their second-half horror show.
Lopetegui’s team delivered an exhibition in defensive disorganisation before Kudus was sent off for violent conduct.
Getty Images)
But with Hammers fans growing increasingly agitated by their new head coach’s failure to provide consistency, summer signing Kilman conceded: “It wasn’t good enough. There was a spell in the second half when we let the game slip.
“It was a bad spell for us. We lost concentration as a team at important moments and let them get ahead of us. “Obviously it’s not good enough for the level we are and the quality we have. We need to be doing much better.
“We need to be much better than that and make sure we’re ready for the next one.”
West Ham, already trapped in a lower mid-table morass, host Manchester United next Sunday and Kilman added: “For sure we need to get our heads down and put in a good performance next week.
“We need to compete with the best teams in the league and we have the quality to do that. We need to keep going and hopefully things will change.