‘Snapped his eyelash’ – Sean Dyche aims dig at Tottenham striker Harry Kane following Everton red card incident

Everton manager Sean Dyche has joked he thought Harry Kane “snapped an eyelash” when the Tottenham striker fell to the ground following an altercation with Abdoulaye Doucoure.

Dyche has taken aim at Kane for his theatrics, despite admitting Doucoure was in the wrong and was rightly dismissed.

“No, he [Doucoure] certainly doesn’t need to apologise,” he said during his press conference on Thursday. “At the end of the day, he knows you can’t raise your hands.

“I thought at one point he might have snapped his [Kane] eyelash and that would have been tragic.

“He seemed to be responding OK. He knows you can’t raise your hand in football, it’s as simple as that, but he is a very strong-minded character and has worked very hard.

“A moment when it goes wrong, he is not going to be judged by that by me.”

Tottenham interim boss Cristian Stellini defended Kane, and said that he has “never seen him exaggerate something” following criticism from former players after the game.

Stellini said: “I think it’s strange that some ex-players said things, I think are wrong, about Harry [Kane], because they are ex-players and they understand the difference between seeing a situation like this in slow motion and live this experience in a real motion, it’s completely different.

“Also, Everton’s manager [Dyche] said that it was a clear red card, so there’s no discussion on this, I don’t understand why some ex-players speak about this.

He added: “I think they don’t agree with Tottenham, instead of don’t agree with Harry. I think they respect Harry, I don’t think they respect, enough, Tottenham.”

Doucoure is set to serve a three-match ban which would see him miss Saturday’s game against Manchester United, a trip to west London to play Fulham, and a crucial tie against Crystal Palace in the race for survival.

Michael Keane’s stunning 90th-minute equaliser in the game against Spurs would have lifted the mood at Goodison Park ahead of a crucial run of fixtures, with the Toffees now unbeaten in four.

“I think what it does is reinforce the words I use in the camp,” Dyche said when asked about his players’ spirit to fight back from a goal behind. “I try to be authentic to my beliefs in football and I do believe if you are relentless in your attitude over 95 minutes, things can change.

“We’re showing that clear-mindedness throughout these games, we did at Chelsea as well to get a good point down there and there was another good response to going down and being with 10 men against Tottenham.

“These are things over the season, I believe, pay you back and we’ve got to believe in it all the time. The players are showing they do.”

Everton sit in 16th place in the Premier League but are on the same number of points (27) as Bournemouth who are in 18th.

The club are in danger of being relegated from the top-flight for the first time since 1951, and have nine games to play in an attempt to avoid the drop.

A win at Old Trafford on Saturday could lift them as high as 12th in the table, but a loss could edge them closer to the relegation zone with time running out.