Mousa Dembele "not proud" of Diego Costa eye-gouge but "disappointed" with ban

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Mousa Dembele has admitted that he is "not proud" of eye-gouging Chelsea striker Diego Costa during the ill-tempered clash at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

The Belgian was hit with a six-game ban by the Football Association after clawing his fingers down Costa's face in a melee.

Spurs relinquished a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2, which ended their Premier League title campaign and handed the trophy over to Leicester City.

"I think it was a just very emotional game," Dembele told Sky Sports News. "Things happened and my intention was not to do something bad for him.

"But it's an emotional game and you react to things. Now after learning from this, I'm not proud of this. It's not in my habit to be that emotional, so we learn from this.

"Of course I'm very disappointed about the six-game ban. I know my intention and I know they want to give a message as well. I'm very disappointed, but I can't keep being disappointed about that. We need to move on for next season."

Dembele has joined up with his Belgium teammates ahead of Euro 2016.