During a Premier League match between Everton and Tottenham, Abdoulaye Doucoure was shown a straight red card for slapping Harry Kane round the face. However, Danny Murphy was disappointed with the Tottenham star’s conduct, claiming that Kane made the most of Doucoure’s challenge. As the match approached the hour mark, Doucoure and Kane had a tussle on the byline for the ball. Kane appeared to grab his opponent’s shirt, but the Everton star lashed out and sent the striker to the floor. David Coote made no hesitation and sent him off for his actions, with Everton now having to scramble a result with one less player. Kane was also booked in the aftermath, with tempers flaring in a match that was lacking in quality.
Reacting to the incident, Danny Murphy said on commentary for talkSPORT that Kane’s reaction was not enough to send him to the ground and that he was embarrassing himself. He also claimed that Doucoure would have been sent off anyway. However, talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy believes Kane was well within his rights to hit the deck the way he did. He claimed that Doucoure was an idiot for raising his arm and putting his fist or hand or palm in a player’s face, which caused Kane to go down. Cundy also stated that Kane had done nothing wrong and that he had brought it to the referee’s attention.
Kane then gave Spurs the lead with a penalty after Cristian Romero was tripped over by Michael Keane. However, the visitors also went down to ten men when substitute Lucas Moura was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Keane. The Everton man then scored a superb goal from outside the area to seal a crucial 1-1 draw and take the Toffees out of the relegation zone.