West Ham's Ghanaian striker Mohamed Kudus was sent off for violent behavior in the match against Tottenham. He hit two Tottenham players in the face. It happened after Tottenham captain Son Heung-min was substituted.
Tottenham defeated West Ham 4-1 in the eighth round of the English Premier League in the 2024-2025 season at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on the 19th.
After returning from injury, Son was directly involved in three goals including a netting, showing off his strong physical strength. When Son became clear to win, he replaced Timo Werner at the 15th minute of the second half, and arranged his physical strength.
Tottenham led 4-1 in a dangerous situation in the 41st minute of the second half.
Tottenham defender Mickey van der Pen fell tangle during a ball match with Kudus.
With Panderpen collapsing first, Kudus was seen kicking Panderpen and passing by.
Panderpen immediately got up and protested to Kudus.
Kudus immediately snapped his hand in Panderpen's face with a fit of rage.
Then, players from both teams flocked and began to fight.
When the situation calmed down, the referee gave both Panderpen and Kudus yellow cards.
However, the part that the referee missed was corrected in the video reading room. After communicating with the video reading room, the referee conducted an on-field review. In the recorded scene, Kudus was caught hitting Pape Sarr in addition to Panderpen in the face.
Upon confirmation, the referee cancelled the yellow card and took out the red card. As the game was sent off due to violent acts, Kudus was suspended for at least three games, which poses additional risks.
Son was not involved in the incident as he had been replaced in advance. If he had been in the field with the captain's armband on, he would have had to rip it off. He could have been aggressively involved in physical fight and then immediately attacked in his return match.
West Ham coach Julen Lopetegui was also frustrated.
As The Athletic reported, Lopetegui said, "The message is that we have confidence that we will have better moments. The Premier League is very long. We have had a rough start. But we will improve to win the game. I am confident."
"At the end of the season, we will see where we will be. I was very frustrated today. Above all, I feel sorry for the fans. We will work very hard for the next challenge," he continued, vowing to rebound.
As for Kudus, he said, "I will talk to him. But not today. He will feel that he needs to improve his behavior. This is not good for him or for the club."
Lopetegui said, "We have to do better. We may have to improve our interpretation with the players. The first half was interesting. We also had a chance to score more goals. In my opinion, the worst part was that the mentality collapsed when we allowed the turnaround. We have to be able to handle this bad moment."
Meanwhile, Son was hurt in a home game against Karabakh FK in the first round of the Europa League on June 27. At 26 minutes in the second half, he sat down when he complained of thigh pain.
Since then, he has been excluded from away matches at Manchester United in the sixth round of the Premier League, away matches at Ferencvaros in the second round of the Europa League, and away matches at Brighton in the seventh round of the Premier League. He was also not called up for the third Asian qualifying team for the 2026 North-China World Cup.
Tottenham did well with a 2-1 record in Son's absence. However, they waited for Son's return as Werner showed a disappointing performance in goal-scoring.
Son Heung-min showed off very light movements in his comeback match. He stabbed a pass that served as the starting point for the come-from-behind goal in the sixth minute of the second half when the score was 1-1. Son grabbed the ball and crept into the left side, looking for an opportunity. When Destiny Udo-gi penetrated, he put in a forward pass with an out front. Udo-gi connected with an accurate cutback to Yves Bissouma. Bissouma shot with one touch and exploded the goal.
Son also induced an opponent's own goal in the 9th minute of the second half. Son connected a long forward pass to Dejan Kulusevski during a counterattack. Son then overlapped Kulusevski with a sincere sprint. Kulusevski saw Son and pushed him. Son's shot hit the opponent's goalkeeper, hit the defender again, and was sucked into the goal.
Son Heung-min finally scored a comeback goal in the 15th minute of the second half. His individual breakthrough shone.
West Ham, who put up a lot of lines, was punished by Son Heung-min.
Tottenham cut off West Ham's offensive work. Pape Sarr found Son Heung-min, who was positioned on the left side of the front line, and stabbed a deep forward pass. Son was one-on-one with the center back. Son broke the defender's balance with a false-legged fight and broke through the left side to open the shooting angle. Son scored the decisive goal with a left-footed shot. 토토사이트
Son Heung-min played for only 70 minutes and swept the team's highest rating.
The soccer statistics media "Huskerdcom" gave Son an 8.34 rating, the highest among the two teams. Football statistics media "Footmob" also gave Son the highest rating along with Kulusevski, who was considered the best player in the team with an 8.5 rating. Sofascore also gave Son an 8.0 rating as the best player in the game.
In an official interview, Son said, "Sometimes it can be good to miss out on an injury. We have very busy times. Two to three weeks was perfect for me to recharge myself. I felt really, really good today."
"When we lost our first goal, coach Enze Postecoglou was not in a good mood. We need to protect our goal like home," Son said. "However, we were very satisfied with the overall performance."
Football London said, "Son Heung-min admitted that he felt pressure to produce results in Postecoglou's system, but he didn't pay much attention."
"(Postecoglou's soccer) is fun, but it also puts a lot of pressure on him. A winger needs to create chances and score goals as well. I think where we need to be, there is a lot of joy as well as pressure," Son said.