It's not been a particularly great week for Tottenham. On Monday night they watched their dreams of a Premier League title go up in smoke as Chelsea came from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Stamford Bridge and subsequently crown Leicester City champions of England. And now Mauricio Pochettino's men could be without Mousa Dembele for a significant amount of time.
The Belgian midfielder was involved in a fracas just before half-time on Monday night with Diego Costa. A flare up between Danny Rose and Willian caused members of both teams to spill towards the touchline, where Dembele appeared to gouge the eye of the Spanish striker.
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Somehow, the incident wasn't noticed by any of the match officials, but was caught on camera and could now prove to be the damning evidence which condemns Dembele to a 10 match ban, The Sun has claimed:
"FA chiefs are classing the incident in the same bracket as Luis Suarez's infamous bite on Blues ace Branislav Ivanovic.
"Ex-Liverpool star Suarez was given a 10-match suspension for chomping Ivanovic's arm in 2013."
Despite referee Mark Clattenburg taking no action at the time of the gouging, the FA have labelled it as an 'extraordinary event'. However, should Dembele be hit with such a hefty punishment, Spurs fans will point to a similar incident involving Fernando Torres and Jan Vertonghen in 2013, when the Spanish striker did something similar and received no punishment whatsoever (although the below picture does make it look more like Torres thumbed the Belgian's top lip then gouge his eye).
(H/T 101 Great Goals)
Topics: Chelsea, Football, Mousa Dembele, Diego Costa, tottenham