'No regrets' - Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham's Cristian Stellini discuss touchline drama

De Zerbi exchanged some heated words with Spurs manager Cristian Stellini before last Saturday’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in which the home side would go on to win 2-1.

It is believed the Brighton boss was unhappy with Stellini’s comments about him in the pre-match press conference.

Both coaches would also be sent off before the end of the game for failing to control their backroom staff, as both benches entered a mass confrontation in the second half.

Brighton and Tottenham were both charged by the Football Association for the debarcle and De Zerbi has said he stood by his behaviour during the match.

The Italian said: “I am still honoured to work in the UK, the Premier League. But I want to work by respecting myself. What I had to say, I said face-to-face, I am used to talking face-to-face.

"I don’t think I made any mistakes. I am clear, I am honest. I like speaking directly. I don’t know him [Stellini]. I don’t want to speak too much. I don’t have any regrets. I didn’t say bad words, I respect always. You have your style of life, I have mine. When I have something to say, I am used to speaking one-to-one and directly. When I have something to say, I do not waste time.

"I can improve in a lot of ways, in parts of my work. But I don’t want to lose my DNA and my DNA is passion. I am not the best coach, or better than the other coaches, I am a normal coach. The best part of myself is the passion, to transfer my passion.”

De Zerbi’s fellow countrymen Stellini said the incident was not started by his staff members, but issued an apology for reacting in the way that they did.

Stellini said: "What we created in that moment was not a good impression for anyone. So maybe for the atmosphere we created it is good the (FA) decision.

"We have to be better, but personally I am happy that we showed that we are a team, we are linked, we are close, we defend ourselves and our club and at the same time I am happy as I feel I was not involved in anything, so it is a good decision I stay on the touchline tomorrow.

"We are not the people who created the situation. Maybe we react and we apologise for that."

The Albion lost their first away game since October last Saturday, but saw a number of referring decisions go against them.

The PGMOL issued an apology to De Zerbi’s side earlier this week, after Karou Mitoma should have been awarded an penalty in the second half, after Pierre-Emile Højbjerg made contact with him in the box, with the scores at 1-1.

Brighton also had two goals dubiously disallowed for handball and a further two strong penalty shouts turned down.

In his pre-match press conference ahead of this Saturday’s Chelsea game, De Zerbi refused to criticise the Premier League’s referees.

De Zerbi said: “Referees can make mistakes. I have never contested the referee’s decision, I respect referees a lot and I don’t like when the other bench tries to put pressure on referees.

"The decisions were clear, the mistakes were clear, but the game is finished and we have to think about another game, what we can do better, because the referee’s decision can’t be changed and we can’t improve in this. We can improve in our play, my players can contest during the game, but after we can only be focussed on the game.”