Idrissa Gueye apologises for Michael Keane slap but Everton boss David Moyes admits: ‘I quite like it’

Idrissa Gueye apologised to his Everton teammates after his red card against Manchester United.

The midfielder was sent off for slapping fellow Toffees star Michael Keane in a heated exchange during the first half.

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Jordan Pickford had to pull the pair apart after they clashed during the opening 15 minutes at Old Trafford.

Referee Tony Harrington showed Gueye a straight red card for his antics, with replays showing he had lightly slapped Keane during their altercation.

It made the Senegal international the first Premier League player to be sent off for fighting a teammate since December 2008.

Fortunately for Gueye, Everton went on to snatch a 1-0 victory despite playing with ten men for 77 minutes.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s curling strike proved to be the difference as David Moyes’ side climb up to 11th in the table.

Gueye apology

“I want to apologise first to my teammate Michael Keane,” Gueye wrote on his official Instagram account.

“I take full responsibility for my reaction. 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. UTT [Up the Toffees].”

Moyes on Gueye’s red card

The Toffees boss addressed the incident at full time, surprisingly admitting: “I like my players fighting each other.”

Moyes added when speaking to Sky Sports: “If nothing happened, I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised.

“I thought the referee could have taken a bit longer to think about it. I got told that the rules of the game that if you slap your own player, you could be in trouble.

“But there’s another side to it, I quite like my players fighting each other, if someone didn’t do the right action. If you want that toughness and resilience to get a result, you want someone to act on it.

“I’m disappointed we get the sending off. But we’ve all been footballers, we get angry with our teammates.

“He’s apologised for the sending off, he’s praised the players and thanked them for it and apologised for what happened.”

United boss Ruben Amorim agreed with Moyes’ surprise at the sending off, claiming teammates fighting ‘is not a bad thing’.

Speaking during his post-match press conference, he explained: “Fighting is not a bad thing, I don’t agree with that sending off.

“We can fight with a teammate. I know it’s violent conduct but I don’t agree with that. I hope if my players lose the ball they fight each other.”

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Match-winner Dewsbury-Hall also reacted to the ‘moment of madness’ between two of his teammates.

He added: “It was just a moment of madness. It was obviously avoidable.

“All I can say is Idrissa apologised to us all at half time and said his piece. That’s all he can do and we move on from it.

“The reaction from the lads after it was unbelievable, top tier. We could’ve easily crumbled, gone in on ourselves and lost the game comfortably, but it probably made us grow even more as a team.

“The manager just said he would deal with the situation another time and it was just about keeping to the plan that we had.

“He just wanted us to continue what we were doing and focus on the things we can change.”

Gueye will now be suspended for next weekend’s clash with Newcastle, who visit Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening as well as their Premier League clashes against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.

His dismissal against United was the fifth of his club career and his second for Everton.

The 36-year-old was previously sent off after receiving two bookings against Arsenal in October 2017 during his first spell with the club.