Before Luis Suarez set about embracing his Draculian tendencies on unsuspecting defenders, Jermain Defoe found himself at the heart of a biting storm during a London derby between West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Now, Argentine agitator Mascherano made quite the habit of inserting himself at the heart of controversy.

Yet, it was Jermain Defoe who lost his head on that October afternoon all the way back in 2006. Considering that Defoe was sent off three times for West Ham in his final few months at the club, he is the first to admit that he would occasionally let his temper get the better of him.

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But, speaking on the Midnite Sports podcast, Defoe is keen to ensure that Javier Mascherano does not come off as a purely innocent party.

While Marlon Harewood later called Mascherano ‘the best’ he had ever played with – even better than compatriot Carlos Tevez – the Barcelona icon would play only seven games for West Ham United. That rather bizarre flashpoint during a 1-0 Tottenham win 20 years ago was, then, probably his most memorable moment on the pitch in claret and blue.

Jermain Defoe ‘felt myself raging’ in bizarre incident with West Ham United’s Javier Mascherano

With the jeers audible in the away end and Mascherano having already left the boot in twice, Defoe could feel the blood rising.

“I remember during the game, it’s a London derby, you know what I mean? Tottenham vs West Ham! Obviously, at the time, I was getting a lot of stick from the West Ham fans but, being at home, you know, you hear more noise from your own home fans,” Defoe says.

“It was early in the game and [Mascherano] sort of smashed me early on. My blood was… you find a different sort of energy for those games anyway. I just felt like he was playing for the fans.

“He smashed me early on. I can’t remember what I said to him; I gave him a look basically, and I could feel myself raging.

“Then it happened again where I got in front of him and he tackled me from behind. At the time I thought, ‘There’s no way—you knew you couldn’t get the ball.’ When you watch it in slow motion, it’s actually funny. I remember just crawling up to him and then had a little nibble!

“But I just reacted.”

Defoe dodged a ban and a red card thanks in part to Martin Jol

Defoe would later describe this as an ‘out of character’ moment from a striker who picked up only two red cards in 496 Premier League appearances for West Ham, Spurs, Sunderland and Portsmouth.

Fortunately for him, the VAR era was nearly two decades in the future, while Tottenham boss Martin Jol did his very best to play things down. In stark contrast to Mascherano, that is.

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“When I did it, it was one of those moments I thought, ‘Oh no,’ because I didn’t know where the referee [Steve Bennett] was!’,” Defoe adds.

“I just felt like… it’s so hard to explain it. Do you know when players say, ‘I play better when I’m angry’? Sometimes you need to find that anger. Sometimes I needed someone to kick me because you get that energy. That sort of controlled rage, I think you need that because it proper gets you going.

“When [Mascherano] tackled me for the second time, I just lost it! When I did that, I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m getting sent off’. [Instead], I got the yellow card.

“I remember, the next day in the paper, it said ‘Bite Hard Lane’! They said to Martin Jol after the game, ‘Jermain got away with one, blah, blah, blah, they might investigate it’.

“Martin is the one who said, ‘nah, it was only a little nibble!’. He made a joke out of it. That probably saved me, to be fair.

“It was a little nibble and [Mascherano] was rolling around on the floor!”