There was a heated confrontation between two players in the Tottenham dressing room mid-match over who would take set pieces.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto was furious when a Tottenham teammate stole his free-kick
Former Tottenham star Sandro has given his version of the argument he broke up in the dressing room at half-time of a match.
The Brazilian midfielder, who spent four seasons at White Hart Lane from 2010 to 2014, had to intervene when two of his Spurs teammates clashed mid-match.
The fight broke out following an argument over a free kick.
Left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto was usually responsible for set pieces, but creative mind Rafael van der Vaart wanted to offload that responsibility – and so he took a promising free-kick opportunity without clearance.
“At that point he was angry. At halftime we enter the locker room and he hits Rafael! I tried to hold him back, he was so strong too, so I grabbed him, pulled him back because he was trying to attack Rafa.
“[He says] ‘Why did you take this photo? Why do you do that? It’s my ball, my friend… you don’t take it! Next time I’ll kill you!’ He was so angry.
The next day we arrive at training and Van der Vaart comes up to me and says: “Sandro, you saved my life… thank you very much.”
Sandro broke up the fight at half-time in the dressing room.
Assou-Ekotto himself spoke publicly about the fight for the first time, telling The Athletic in February 2022: “We became even closer after that.
On Sunday I fought with him, and a few days later he gave me the ball and I scored against Everton. He was happy and we were close.
Jermaine Jenas, meanwhile, told talkSPORT last September that the pair were “going naked”.
“We go upstairs, everyone gets changed and then suddenly I hear this commotion in the showers. Rafa and Benoit are naked! It was stopped almost immediately,” he said.
