Mauricio Pochettino intervened in a post match melee involving Dani Osvaldo to calm down his record signing.

Tempers were flaring towards the end of the 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa with a few hefty challenges flying in and yellow cards produced.

After the final whistle there were a few confrontations, including one involving Osvlado.

Pochettino was close to the situation and stepped in to pull the record signing away and usher him down the tunnel.

“It’s only normal in football these things can happen,” said Pochettino.

“We were very angry, the nerves get the best of you so it’s normal that there’s going to be temper tantrums at the end.”

There were suggestions that Osvaldo may have raised an arm to a Villa player and went head to head with him but Pochettino said: “Sincerely I did not see that.

“I saw there was a bit of a melee happening and I went for my player to take him out of that situation and calm him down.”