Ange Postecoglou plays down melee as New Year greeting

Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou played down his heated touchline exchange with Bournemouth's backroom staff towards the end of an entertaining 3-1 home win.

Pape Sarr, Son Heung-min and Richarlison were on target to fire fifth-placed Spurs to a fourth victory in five matches, which puts them three points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool going into 2024.

The back and forth contest threatened to spill over towards its conclusion when young Tottenham substitute Alejo Veliz suffered a suspected knee injury and while he attempted to play on, he was repeatedly told by Postecoglou and his staff to stay down to receive treatment.

It led to Postecoglou exchanging words with Bournemouth first-team coach Shaun Cooper in stoppage time before a melee ensued on the touchline, which resulted in referee Stuart Hooper booking the duo and Spurs midfielder Giovani Lo Celso.

But Postecoglou joked: "We were just wishing each other happy new year.

"It’s alright. Just a little bit of emotion in the game. I was more concerned with Alejo because we were kind of trying to get him off the field and, apart from my physically going on the pitch and dragging him off, he wasn’t really going to go down.

"So, we were just shouting at him and I think the Bournemouth staff thought, I don’t know what they thought, maybe that we were trying to make a substitution but we knew we had none. It was just about getting him off."

Opposite number Andoni Iraola was also happy to brush off the incident, although suggested it was clever game management.

"No, it is normal. I think it is what all the teams do. When you are winning the game, you want to play as less as possible, you want to stop," Cherries head coach Iraola said.

"They had Veliz injured and it is