Idrissa Gueye lost his head in front of more than 70,000 people as he was sent off against Manchester United for slapping his own team-mate.
The Everton midfielder carelessly gave the ball away in the penalty area which Bruno Fernandes almost punished when his shot whistled just past the post.
As United players started jogging back to defend the goal-kick, Gueye confronted team-mate Michael Keane after the defender berated Gueye for his careless play.
The pair came face to face, with Keane appearing to move his head towards Gueye, before he raised his hand and struck Keane in the face with a slap, leading to a straight red card from referee Tony Harrington.
Gueye is the first player to be sent off in the Premier League for fighting with a team-mate since 2008 when Stoke’s Ricardo Fuller was sent off for slapping Andy Griffin.
It conjured up memories of 20 years ago when Kieran Dyer and Lee Bowyer clashed and came to blows on the pitch for Newcastle United versus Aston Villa.
Idrissa Gueye appeared to slap team-mate Michael Keane across the face in a bizarre incident
Blackburn Rovers team-mates Graeme Le Saux and David Batty famously fought with each other on the pitch in a Champions League game versus Spartak Moscow in 1995.
David Moyes could have no complaints with the red for Gueye, his first dismissal of the season, as he had to be physically restrained by Jordan Pickford and Iliman Ndiaye as he tried to get a second go at Keane, before eventually going down the tunnel.
TV cameras initially missed the incident with Sky Sports cutting to a replay as it was unfolding.
Full footage shows Gueye and Keane in a heated row, which then escalates as the defender moves his head in the direction of his team-mate. Gueye then slaps Keane.
Speaking on commentary, Gary Neville claimed the sending off was soft. ‘There’s not much in that – it’s a tap,’ he said.
‘It’s unsavoury when you see two teammates going at each other but it wasn’t a scrap. It didn’t need to be a red card.’
Jamie Carragher agreed with Neville and believes the referee did not have to give Gueye his marching orders.
‘I just think sometimes can the referee manage a situation a little bit?’ Carragher said.
The Everton star had to be held back by Jordan Pickford as he tried to get a second go at Keane
‘The actual ruling, as you’ve said, a little bit like when we talk about tackles, excessive force, we’re talking about a slap here.
‘Could you just get the two of them together and say ‘eh, behave yourselves’. Sort of manage the situation rather than say ‘that’s the rule book, I am just going off exactly that’. When you actually look at the rules it actually gives the referee a bit of an out.’
The Premier League Match Centre said on X: ‘The referee’s call of red card to Gueye for violent conduct was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the action deemed to be a clear strike to the face of Keane.’
Everton were not hampered by the red card as they went ahead on the half hour as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s superb effort found the top corner.
It was enough to secure a famous victory for the Toffees, their first at Old Trafford since 2013.
Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, the match-winner revealed that Gueye apologised to his team-mates after the full-time whistle.
‘Rollercoaster game. I’ll sleep well tonight, put it that way,’ a very pleased Dewsbury-Hall said. ‘So genuinely happy for the lads and how hard they worked. A fantastic performance of gritting away, getting a goal and keeping that spirit. So glad we got the three points.
‘We started really well – the situation happened. It was a moment of madness, avoidable. The reaction from us, was unbelievable. Top tier. We could have crumbled but if anything, it made us grow.
‘He [Moyes, at half-time] just said: that’s done now. We’ll deal with that another time. It was about keeping to the plan we had. He made sure we do the right things, continue what we’re dong. We can’t change that now, second half we continued to do that.’
UPDATE:
David Moyes needed Everton to put up a fight at Old Trafford, and got a little more than he bargained for.
Ruben Amorim needed Manchester United to seize an opportunity to break into the top-four and got as insipid a performance as they have produced in a year under their Portuguese coach.
Up against 10 men for all but 13 minutes of this game after a moment of sheer madness from Idrissa Gueye, United fell behind to a sumptuous strike from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and couldn’t get past a resolute Everton defence and their brilliant goalkeeper Jordan Pickford who excelled in front England manager Thomas Tuchel.
This was a sobering night for Amorim and his players on the first anniversary of his opening game in charge. A mini-revival had brought an unbeaten five-match unbeaten run, but United had failed to win the last two and now it’s three.
After a 4-0 win over Everton in the corresponding fixture last December, Amorim warned that a storm was coming and it clearly hasn’t passed yet judging by this abject display. The boos at full-time spoke volumes.
Nothing summed up the lack of quality still evident in this United squad better than the performance of Joshua Zirkzee.
Idrissa Gueye was sent off for slapping Everton team-mate Michael Keane in a bizarre incident
The sending off did not hamper the visitors as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s goal won the match for the 10 men
Without Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha – whose injury was bizarrely revealed by Visit Altrincham’s social media feed when he was unable to switch on the Christmas lights at the weekend – the Dutchman was given his first start in 225 days and failed to take the opportunity.
Assuming Cunha and Sesko will be fit sooner rather than later, it would make sense for Zirkzee to call time on his United career and go out on loan in January.
He was by no means the only United player to come up short here. A big win last night could have seen them move up as high as fourth place in the table. Instead they stay in 10th, level on points with Everton.
For Moyes, this was a richly deserved and satisfying victory over the club that fired him after 10 months in charge in 2014, back in the days when a Champions League quarter-final defeat to Bayern Munich and seventh place in the table were considered sackable offences.
This was his first Premier League win at Old Trafford in 18 attempts as an opposition manager with Everton, West Ham and Sunderland. It was also the first time Everton have won in the Premier League for 19 years after going down to 10 men in the first half.
The red card came about from an astonishing incident in the 13th minute. There isn’t much that should shock us in football anymore, but the sight of two teammates at each others’ throats certainly takes some beating.
So it was that Gueye and Michael Keane channelled their inner Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer – or David Batty and Graeme Le Saux for fans’ of an older persuasion.
What made it all the more ridiculous was that Everton had got off a solid start, and United were making their first foray into the danger zone. Bryan Mbeumo’s run came to nothing and Gueye’s stray pass to Keane on the edge of the box allowed Bruno Fernandes to fire narrowly wide from distance.
The verbal spat between 5ft 9in Gueye and 6ft 3in Keane escalated dramatically as the veteran Senegal midfielder slapped his teammate around the face with his left hand.
There were echoes of Bowyer going at it with his Newcastle teammate Dyer when both were sent off against Aston Villa in 2005, and Batty and Le Saux when Blackburn lost to Spartak Moscow a decade earlier.
Joshua Zirkzee had United’s best chance but he was denied by a superb Jordan Pickford save
United’s recent revival under Ruben Amorim came to an end with defeat at Old Trafford
Referee Tony Harrington, whose only intervention up to that point had been to settle some handbags between James Tarkowski and Zirkzee, immediately reached for the red card and Gueye was off.
Even then, the 36-year-old had to be wrestled towards the tunnel by Pickford as he threatened to completely lose his head. It really was the height of idiocy, and Gueye is fortunate that his team put up such a sterling effort to win this game.
The bust-up came just moments after a disconsolate Everton captain Seamus Coleman had headed straight for the away dressing-room as his first start in two months lasted less than 10 minutes. There was every expectation at that point that the balance of the game had swung firmly in United’s favour.
Credit to Moyes’s side though. They cleared their heads – perhaps literally in Keane’s case – and took the lead with an excellent goal just before the half hour mark.
Former United youngster James Garner fed Dewsbury-Hall and he shrugged off a half-hearted challenge from Fernandes before stepping inside Leny Yoro and unleashing a fantastic effort from the edge of the box which Senne Lammens could only help only help on its way into the top corner.
Everton ended a long wait for victory at Old Trafford, winning there for the first time since 2013
United had their chances to level but couldn’t break down an heroic Everton resistance or an inspired Pickford.
He tipped over another long-ranger from Fernandes, made a smart save from Mbeumo and then prevented Zirkzee from being United’s unlikely saviour when he turned his header from Luke Shaw’s cross around the post.
Patrick Dorgu blazed high and wide from Zirkzee’s cross to the back post, and Fernandes scuffed another good chance over the bar from close-range. Of United’s 25 shots, only six were on target.
But let’s not take away credit from Everton. It was a fantastic performance – and for that Idrissa Gueye should be a very relieved man.
