Troy Deeney accuses Spurs of harassing ref into red card

You can forgive Watford players and fans, I guess, for being a little upset about the way Spurs won Monday's match at Vicarage Road. Between Son Heung-Min possibly being offside in the initial cross into the box, to a Ben Watson goal being waved off due to goal line technology, it's a bitter pill to swallow. I get it.

However, the one bit of refereeing that Anthony Taylor got spot on was the straight red card to Chelsea loanee Nathan Ake for a studs-up high boot challenge on Erik Lamela. But don't tell that to Watford striker Troy Deeney – according to quotes in the Mirror, he's pretty convinced that the only reason Ake got sent off was because Spurs players brow-beat the referee into it.

"The thing that frustrated me was 10 people running around the referee screaming for him to be sent off.

"But apparently we're 'little Watford' and you're supposed to be running all over us, so why do you need a man sent off?

"People are going to know what we do. Tottenham tried three at the back. People will show you respect. But you'll still get people who come here expecting to beat us.

"We're still classed as ‘little Watford'. I find it quite cute. But we cause people problems. We've held our own and shaken up the league a little bit.

So, according to Troy Deeney, the only reason Ake got a red card is because Spurs players got all mad and stuff about a silly old foul. I mean, it's not like he could've been seriously hurt or anything. But never mind that, what's with Big Bad Tottenham demanding that RULES and stuff get FAIRLY APPLIED when they should be easily dispatching little ol' Watford anyway?

SO SALTY. Let's take another look at the foul.

See, that's pretty much the definition of a red card foul. Studs up, right to the groin. If Ake happened to catch Lamela a little lower, he might have actually snapped his leg. I don't think Ake's foul was intentional by any means – not like, for instance, James McClean's horror tackle against Bournemouth last week. In real time, it didn't look that bad, but on replay it was very clearly a dangerous tackle and the straight red card was 100% deserved.

The tl;dr: shut up, Troy.