Xavi Simons earned himself a needless straight red card against Liverpool, but the Dutchman had a message for his Tottenham team-mates and supporters
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Xavi Simons has issued an apology after his straight red card against Liverpool. The Dutchman was sent for an early shower after he stood on the back of Virgil van Dijk's Achilles, catching him with his studs and even tearing the defender's sock.
It was missed by the official, but after a VAR consultation, Simons was given the red card. The score was 0-0 at the time and from that moment, things were made even harder for Thomas Frank's side.
Tottenham went on to lose 2-1, in a game where Cristian Romero also got sent off. Perfectly aware of the error he made, Simons issued an apology to everybody at Tottenham and to Van Dijk himself.
He took to social media and wrote: "Mistakes happen. Virg is my captain. I would never intentionally hurt him or anyone. To my Spurs teammates, my manager and the fans, I take responsibility, I'm really sorry."
Simons has struggled for consistency since his big money move from RB Leipzig. He contributed a goal and an assist in the recent 2-0 home victory over Bournemouth, leaving many believing he had found his feet.
But this is a setback for the Netherlands international, who will be suspended for the next three matches. However, if this is a consolation for Simons, Frank does not believe his challenge warranted a straight red card.
The Dane said: "I don’t like this (Xavi challenge) as a red card. I think the game is probably too big to say gone, but for me it’s not reckless and it’s not exceptional force.
"He is chasing Van Dijk. He is trying to put pressure and then he changes direction. Unfortunately his foot is on Achilles. You can say ‘ah, you need to be smarter, don’t do it and all that’ but so are we not allowed to have physical contact anymore?
"The next thing on that is if he gets three games, which I don’t understand, how can he get three games for something which is not reckless? That is absolutely wrong and we probably can’t appeal it."
Alexander Isak went on to open the scoring in the second half before Hugo Ekitike doubled Liverpool's lead. Richarlison did come off the bench to halve the deficit, but the Brazilian's work was undone by captain Cristian Romero receiving a second yellow card in the 93rd minute.
The result piles the pressure on Frank. Tottenham were left in 13th position as a result of that defeat, seven points off the top four. Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Arne Slot was pleased with his side's performance in north London.
Admitting things were made harder by Simons' red card, Slot said: "I thought it would mean that it was a little bit easier, but in reality it wasn’t. I thought to be honest with nine, we will probably be able then to keep them away from our goal.
"But it looked as if we were down to nine and they were on 11 because it was attack after attack after attack, but it didn’t lead to a goal.”