Idrissa Gueye has issued a grovelling apology to his team-mates after he was shown a red card for slapping Michael Keane during Everton’s 1-0 victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The incident occurred just 13 minutes into the clash against Manchester United on Monday night.
After being berated by Keane for a careless pass, Gueye confronted the centre-half before raising his hand and striking him in the face, attracting a straight red card from referee Tony Harrington.
In a surprising turn of events, Everton went on to score a beautiful strike from Dewsbury-Hall before holding on to the score line until the full-time whistle.
The 36-year-old veteran has taken responsibility for his action 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.’
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.’
