Tottenham’s 1-0 Premier League win over Everton on Monday was hardly a classic and will best be remembered for a half-time bust-up between captain Hugo Lloris and teammate Son Heung-min that manager Jose Mourinho described as “beautiful”.

The Spurs were leading, thanks to Michael Keane’s own goal, but Lloris, as the players walked off the pitch, let it out at Son for not tracking back when Richarlison had a chance on the stroke of half-time. They had to be separated by their teammates, although it was all smiles later.

“It’s beautiful,” Mourinho, whose side moved up to eighth in the table, nine points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, said. “It’s probably as a consequence of our meetings. If you want to blame someone for that, it’s me. I was critical of my boys — they were not critical enough with themselves.

“I asked them to be more demanding of each other. Son is an amazing kid, everybody likes Son but the captain told him you have to do more and give more to the team.”

Mourinho said he encouraged a frank exchange of views between players, if not in full view of the TV cameras.