Manchester City defender David Sommeil has been charged with violent conduct by the FA following tackle on Tottenham's Lee Young-Pyo on Wednesday night.

The Frenchman appeared to catch the Korean on the upper thigh with a very late lunge after the Spurs player had cleared the ball.

Lee was stretchered from the pitch immediately afterwards and is likely to spend some time recovering on the sidelines.

Sommeil’s challenge came seconds after Joey Barton had been left face down by a thunderous challenge from Spur midfielder Michael Brown, who was yellow carded.

Spurs boss Martin Jol was furious with Sommeil's challenge, which was not spotted by referee Alan Wiley who had just blown for Brown’ss foul.

The FA have now reviewed the video and decided Sommeil has a case to answer.

He has until 6pm to decide whether to accept a three-match ban immediately or have his case heard by the disciplinary commission on Tuesday.

If Sommeil accepts the charge for a tackle Lee claimed was the worst he had ever suffered, he will miss tomorrow's FA Cup tie with Scunthorpe and this month's Premiership encounters with Manchester United and Bolton.

But, while most observers believe Sommeil will be lucky to avoid suspension, his manager has defended the player and claimed he sees worse incidents every weekend.

"It looked to me like the Tottenham guy was trying to smash the ball at David," said the City boss. "David has definitely caught the lad but whether he is trying to turn away to shield himself from the ball being kicked at him or whether he has intentionally kicked him I am not sure.

"But he is not a nasty person and his disciplinary record bears that out.

"I see many tackles that are a lot worse than that on TV every Saturday night.

"I don't think many people saw it because most had their attention on the original tackle just prior to that which was very poor and might have been a red card offence in itself."