Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has defended Jan Vertonghen after the Belgian centre back was accused of feigning injury in an attempt to get Fernando Torres sent off.
The Spaniard was alleged to have scratched Vertonghen’s face in the fiery London derby clash between Spurs and Chelsea, which ended 1-1.
The pair were then involved in another scrap which saw Torres controversially earn himself a second yellow card, with referee Mike Dean adjudging the 29-year-old to have used an elbow in the aerial challenge.
Replays showed Torres’ elbow made no contact with Vertonghen’s face, and critics turned on the Belgium international after clutching his face in apparent agony. But Villas-Boas seemed to imply that Torres was in the wrong by insisting the media appreciate his player’s values.
"I'm extremely happy that most of the media saw the incident, knows about Jan's values and have decided to draw positive conclusions about him and about his character.
“What we have with Jan, he is only in his second year and he has become the captain of Spurs as well. He is one of our captains elected by myself and by the club because he has been that type of leader and that type of person for his last years with the national team and with Ajax. So he is a person that we hold high in the team.”
"So that's the end of the matter for us. We believe in the player a lot and we believe he is more than a great player and a great person."
