Idrissa Gueye has issued a grovelling apology to his team-mates after he was dismissed for slapping Michael Keane during Everton‘s 1-0 victory at Old Trafford
The ‘moment of madness’, as match-winner Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall described it, occurred just 13 minutes into the clash against Manchester United.
After being berated by Keane for a careless pass, Gueye confronted the centre-half before raising his hand and striking him in the face, drawing a straight red card from referee Tony Harrington.
In a surprising turn of events, Everton went on to take the lead via a stellar strike from Dewsbury-Hall before holding onto their advantage come the full time whistle.
It was revealed by the Englishman and manager David Moyes post-match that Gueye had apologised in the dressing room and, now, the 36-year-old veteran has taken responsibility for his head-loss with a post on Instagram.
‘I want to apologise first to my team-mate Michael Keane,’ it read. ‘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.’
Everton defended resiliently after the sending off, restricting the hosts to a handful of chances as they pushed desperately for an equaliser.
The victory leaves them in eleventh place, in front of struggling Merseyside rivals Liverpool and, speaking afterwards, Moyes was full of praise for his team, even claiming he ‘likes his players fighting.’
‘If nothing happened, I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised,’ the Scotsman said of the sending off. ‘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 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 team-mates.
‘He’s apologised for the sending off, he’s praised the players and thanked them for it and apologised for what happened.’
For United, it was a result which put a dent in their hopes of achieving European football this term after a recent upturn in form.
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Anger is a thing
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