Michail Antonio says he was ‘shocked’ no action was taken against Sergio Reguilon for slapping Aaron Cresswell in the face during West Ham’s 3-1 defeat to Tottenham.
The Hammers lost ground to Spurs in the race for the top four as they were undone by an own goal and a Heung-min Son double at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
The main takeaways from the game in North London came from Tottenham’s potent attacking play, with the Lilywhites closing the gap to Arsenal down to just three points.
But as with most London derbies, the encounter was also filled with a handful of other incidents away from the actual football.
With Spurs having won a corner, Kurt Zouma kicked the ball at Son who was walking over to take it, which caused Reguilon to rush over and confront the former Chelsea defender.
As the Spaniard ran over to confront him, Cresswell intervened which was when, according to Antonio, Reguilon slapped the West Ham left-back.
And the striker says he cannot believe referee Anthony Taylor elected to let Reguilon off the hook, despite the incident being checked.
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He told The Footballer’s Football Podcast (24/03/22): “Two fans run onto the pitch and they tried to tie themselves to the post. I feel it happened at the right time.
“But, I do honestly feel, because that happened, it distracted the referee from making a crucial decision for us, by the way.
“I don’t know if people have seen it. But, one of our players got slapped in the face. And there wasn’t a decision made.
“So, I have gone, ‘There has to be a decision made here’. I have said to the ref, ‘Somebody has been slapped in the face. Please can you check it’. He’s gone, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it blah, blah’. Then the fan has run on.
“There were four or five things for him to think about, so his mind was dealing with a lot of stuff. Then he goes, ‘Everything has been checked’. I was like, ‘There is no way it has been checked’. Cress had a red mark across his face. I was shocked.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The incident at the time was pretty silly and could have been avoided altogether. Son definitely made a meal out of Zouma kicking the ball in his direction, but he shouldn’t have aimed it at him in the way that he did.
Reguilon would also count himself as lucky to avoid anything happening to him which could have spoilt the rest of Tottenham’s display on the day.
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