Online Reporter
IDRISSA GUEYE was sent off for Everton after SLAPPING his own team-mate Michael Keane.
The pair were both furious after Bruno Fernandes had whistled a shot narrowly off target in the 13th minute of Manchester United‘s Old Trafford clash with the Toffees.
After Fernandes’ shot, Gueye appeared to angrily berate defender Keane. The pair then went head-to-head, before Gueye slapped his team-mate.
Referee Tony Harrington immediately brandished his red card, sending the 36-year-old off.
At this point Gueye appeared to get even angrier, needing to be held back by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Co-commentating for Sky Sports, Gary Neville disagreed with the red card.
The former Man Utd full-back, 50, called the contact “negligible” – adding that he felt a yellow would have sufficed.
Pundit Jamie Carragher then suggested that the referee could have “managed” the situation without needing to send Gueye off.
Gueye is set to receive a three-match ban – ruling him out of matches against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.
Later next month, the midfielder will head to AFCON with Senegal.
Everton had already lost skipper Seamus Coleman to an early injury.
The veteran full-back, 37 was replaced by Jake O’Brien just 10 minutes into the contest after pulling up. Amazingly, Everton’s 10-men took the lead on the half hour. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall brilliantly curled the ball home with his weaker foot to spark bedlam in the away end.
And David Moyes’ side heroically held on to win 1-0 against the odds. Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Dewsbury-Hall revealed that Gueye had apologised in the dressing room.
Gueye is not the first Premier League star to be sent off for scrapping with a team-mate.
Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer infamously both saw red for fighting during Newcastle‘s clash with Aston Villa in 2005.
The most recent example of a player being sent off for fighting a team-mate was when Ricardo Fuller saw red for slapping fellow Stoke ace Andy Griffin in December 2008.
Fuller had been upset at the full-back after the Potters conceded a goal to West Ham.
Meanwhile, Moyes made light of midfielder Idrissa Gueye’s sending off for a confrontation with teammate Michael Keane 13 minutes into his side’s 1-0 Premier League win away to Manchester United on Monday.
Moyes said that Senegal international Gueye had apologised and that the incident had some positives.
“These things happen in football, I thought the referee could maybe have taken a little bit longer to think about it,” the manager said after Everton’s first league win at Old Trafford for 12 years and second in their last 33 visits.
“I’m getting told the rules are that if you slap your own player or raise an arm in some way you can be in trouble. But, you know, there’s another side of it.
“I quite like my own players fighting each other and getting annoyed with each other because of a bad ball or someone didn’t do the right action. If you want a winning team, with the resilience and toughness that got us the result, then I think you’ve got to have players that are going to react in that way.”
Gueye later apologised for the incident in a social media post.
“I want to apologise first to my teammate Michael Keane. I take full responsibility for my reaction,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I also apologise to my teammates, the staff, the fans and the club. What happened does not reflect who I am or the values I stand for. Emotions can run high, but nothing justifies such behaviour.
“I’ll make sure it never happens again.”
Despite the incident, and an early injury to Seamus Coleman, Everton became the first team to win a Premier League game at Old Trafford after having a player sent off thanks to a superb goal by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
“I’m incredibly proud of the players and the supporters here today because I know it has been a regular occurrence where we’ve not got a result here,” Moyes said.
“It was never going to be an easy game for us with 11 players, but to do it with 10 players was an incredible job by the players.” – Sun
