According to the Daily Mail a spat developed yesterday between West Ham’s Edson Alvarez and Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez. Following Chelsea’s third goal, Alvarez fouled Cole-Palmer and was cautioned by the referee and shown a yellow card. The incident didn’t end there apparently and the Mail are reporting that Mexican Alvarez then exchanged words with Argentine Fernandez, which the newspaper says were picked up by some off-pitch microphones, despite Alvarez covering his mouth as he spoke.
The words heard were reported by Argentinian outlet ‘OLE’ – apparently were: “Afuera te mato, donde quieras – Te Espero”: “I’ll kill you outside, wherever you want, I’ll wait for you”.
To which, the Argentinian is claimed to have replied “Dale, dale” – “Go ahead”, whilst patting Alvarez on the back. The whole thing then de-escalated as the two put their handbags away. Alvarez was substituted shortly after and the whole episode was forgotten until it appeared in The Mail.
If you’ve ever watched Sunday morning football in your local Park, you’ll have heard far worse. I’m not condoning silly threats but emotions run very high – and I’m hoping the whole thing will be consigned to the file marked ‘dumb things said in the heat of the moment’ and every body moves on.
Frankly compared to the tackle later on by Mark Cucurella which took out Mohammed Kudus, which was far more likely to endanger the player’s physical wellbeing – a few words between South American competitors isn’t something to lose sleep over. Hopefully commons sense will prevail and the Premier League or FA will say no more about it.
I’d better choose my words carefully here: I’d never condone violence or threats of violence of course – but a bit more ‘passion’ on display from some other Hammers players wouldn’t have gone amiss. It’s clear Edson was caught up in the heat of the moment and I’m assuming he didn’t wait around – but got in his car and went home directly after the game.