Tottenham’s Thomas Frank accuses Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins of provoking post-match scuffle

Thomas Frank has accused Ollie Watkins of provoking a bust-up after the final whistle of Tottenham’s 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa.

Emiliano Buendía and Donyell Malen put Villa 2-0 up at the break, before Wilson Odobert halved the deficit with a low drive on 54 minutes.

Spurs rallied but were unable to avoid a third-round exit and as Watkins went to celebrate with Villa fans at full-time, he did so close to João Palhinha, sparking a melee in which players and staff from both clubs got involved. Palhinha then squared up to Ezri Konsa as the players left the field.

Spurs have been involved in a number of incidents at the end of matches in recent months. Several players were engaged in angry exchanges following Wednesday’s defeat at Bournemouth while Cristian Romero was serving an extra one-match ban against Villa from the Football Association for “acting improperly by failing to leave the field of play promptly” after his red card last month against Liverpool.

Asked if his players were losing control, Frank said: “Of course, it is all about keeping a cool head.

“The players gave everything out there, losing a tight game, the season is not going perfect and I think Ollie is very provoking in the way he’s going down to celebrate in front of the Villa fans.

“He is just walking into João and he could just easily walk around. Everyone who has a been of a competitive nature, it is difficult, that can trigger things.”

Villa boss Unai Emery hinted at frustration with Palhinha after his early tackle prompted Boubacar Kamara’s ninth-minute substitution due to injury.

“It is the referee’s work,” he said.

“I respect the referees and the competition. We were only angry because Boubacar Kamara was getting injured in in one action with Palhinha. The referee today, he did a fantastic job. Some moments happen with some players, we can understand in the circumstances.”

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Spurs were booed off at half-time and more muted boos greeted the final whistle as the pressure mounts on Frank with Tottenham now out of both domestic cup competitions and languishing 14th in the Premier League.

“Of course it is disappointing,” said Frank.

“We are all hurt. There’s nothing we want to do more than to get through to the next round, no matter who we face. We played at home, we had a good opportunity.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t go through. We went with full strength in terms of how we could do it. We all look back at the game and think we could do better in the first half, second half, very good.”