Marc Cucurella breaks silence on Chelsea vs West Ham brawl amid surprise Adama Traore reunion | OneFootball

Blues’ agitator-in-chief admitted to ‘stirring things up’

Marc Cucurella has admitted to ‘stirring up’ a brawl late in Chelsea’s comeback defeat of West Ham, but has gone on to clear the air with Adama Traore.

He tossed Cucurella off the pitch after the ball went out of play and then started on Joao Pedro, triggering a 22-man brawl which resulted in Jean-Clair Todibo being sent off.

But Cucurella has now admitted he had aimed to “stir things up.”

Marc Cucurella and Adama Traore were at the nexus of a huge brawl in the late stages of Chelsea’s defeat of West Ham

John Walton/PA Wire

Speaking on Spanish fancast, the 3Cat Fanzone show, he recounted: "It was late in the game. We were barging into one another and I felt myself very close to him, and I thought, well, I'm going to stick my head in here to see if I can stir things up a bit.

"He grabbed me, threw me where he could, and a big brawl broke out."

Cucurella added jokingly: "These are things that happen. I have no problem. Although if I ran into him on the street, I'd hesitate to say hello after this."

His reunion with Traore came sooner than expected, though, as the West Ham forward dialled in to the show.

He said he had not intended to start the fight, and that he only wanted to chat with the referee’saassistant before being overcome with red mist.

"He's a really good guy," said Traore of Cucurella. "It's nothing personal and there will never be. It all stays on the pitch, it was just the heat of the moment.

"I really didn't mean to do it, it wasn't my intention. I just wanted to talk to the linesman."

Both players saw the funny side of the affair as Cucurella quipped: "Now I'm calm because there's a screen between us."

The FA have charged both Chelsea and West Ham with failing to control their players in the fight.