Everton midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye has apologized to his team-mates after receiving a bizarre red card during the Toffees’ historic win away at Manchester United. Everton became the first team in Premier League history to beat United at Old Trafford on Monday night, losing just one man.
But his red card in the 13th minute was unusual, as Gay was sent off for slapping teammate Michael Keane during a defensive mix-up. The Senegalese midfielder reacted angrily to Keane pushing him as both men exchanged angry words. Referee Tony Harrington gave Gayet a red, with the Premier League confirming that Gayet was given his marching orders for a “clear blow to Keane’s face”. Despite falling behind by 10 points, Everton secured a stunning victory thanks to a first-half goal from Keenan Dewsbury-Hall.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, the match-winning midfielder revealed that Gueye had said he was sorry to the team in the post-match chat. He explained: “Roller coaster game. I’m going to sleep well tonight, if I may say so. The players were really happy and how hard they worked.
“It was a great performance, gritting our teeth and scoring and keeping that spirit. We were really happy to get the three points. We started very well but then the situation happened and it was a crazy moment that could have been avoided.
“But what I can say is that Idrissa apologized to us full-time, gave his opinion and that’s all he can do. We move on from there. The response from us was incredible. Top tier. We could have collapsed, but instead it made us grow.”
“He[David Moyes]said at half-time: ‘It’s over. We’ll deal with that another time.’ It was about sticking to the plan we had set out. He made sure we did the right thing and continued to do what we were doing. We can’t change that now, but we continued to do that in the second half.”
Moyes revealed that Gueye also appreciated his team-mate’s performance and said he was not actually concerned about the two players competing. He said: “I’m surprised. I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised if nothing had happened.”
“I thought the referee should have had more time to think about it. I’ve heard that according to the rules of the game, if you slap or raise your arm, even if it’s your own player, you can get into trouble.”
“There’s another side to it. I really like when the players fight each other and get frustrated with each other over bad balls or someone not doing the right thing. I think that’s part of it too.”
“If you want a winning team, that resilience, that toughness that gets you results, you have to have that in your players. It’s unfortunate that he got sent off, but as anyone who has played at this level will tell you, you often get angry at your teammates.”
“He apologized in the dressing room for the sending off. He was incredibly praising and thanked the players for their performance. And, like I said, he apologized for what happened.”
Commenting on the overall performance, Moyes said: “The resilience and toughness was really good. The players had to show that tonight. To go down to 10 men here, Manchester United are in pretty good form at the moment and are playing much better, so it’s not going to be an easy game with 11 men at all.”
“It’s a great job by the players to do that with 10 men. They were very good. In football, things like that happen and you have to deal with it. The players did a great job making sure we got the win.”
A disappointed United defender Matthijs de Ligt responded: “It’s clear: it was a bad night for us. We conceded 11-10 for almost 70 minutes and we didn’t create many chances. We had the numbers, but it wasn’t enough for a 10-10 game. It was a disappointing night.”
“For us, we didn’t do enough. We couldn’t put any runs or bodies into the box. They were strong in the air, so we didn’t have anyone to score from there. We basically played to their strengths. Those are the main aspects, but we have to look at ourselves and we weren’t good enough.”
“We were training together apart for a while. I think we lacked a little bit of urgency in some situations. When we lack that intensity, they get punished. If we don’t score, we lose this game. We lacked the greed to make changes in the most important moments.”
