I like my players fighting each other, says David Moyes, after Idrissa Gueye sees red

LONDON – Everton manager David Moyes has 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 Nov 24.

After 17 failed attempts to win a league game at Old Trafford as a visiting manager, Moyes finally enjoyed a victory in unusual circumstances after Gueye saw red for slapping Keane following a heated exchange.

It was only the third time in Premier League history that a player had been dismissed for a fracas with a teammate and the first time since 2008, when Stoke City’s Ricardo Fuller slapped Andy Griffin during a match at West Ham United.

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,” he 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.”

Referee Tony Harrington reached for his red card after Gueye aimed a slap at Keane, who had shoved the midfielder. Gueye then had to be restrained by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

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.

“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 added.

“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.”

United manager Ruben Amorim, meanwhile, slammed his team for not being good enough. He even suggested that it would be better if his players had shown the same fighting spirit as Gueye.

“I think we deserved to lose. We didn’t play well. We didn’t play with the right intensity,” he said.

“We are not there, not even near the point that we should be to fight for the best positions in the league. We have a lot to do, and we need to be perfect to win games. We were not perfect.

“Fighting is not a bad thing. Fighting doesn’t mean that they don’t like each other. Fighting is that if you lose the ball, I will fight you, because we will suffer a goal. I hope my players, when they lose the ball, they fight each other. 

“We need to work together. I’m not going. The players are trying, but we need to be better so we have training tomorrow, and we are going to prepare the next one.”

REUTERS