Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye has addressed the red card he received in the first half of his team’s eventual win over Manchester United on Monday night.
In what was an awkward incident, Gueye was sent off for raising his hand to collegaue Michael Keane after an altercation between the pair on the pitch.
The incident erupted when Keane reacted to Gueye carelessly giving the ball away near to Everton’s goal, which resulted in Manchester United having a shot. Both players exchanged words and then pushed and shoved themselves.
During the short alterations, Gueye’s hand swiped at Keane’s face before he was quickly pulled away from the situation by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Gueye was shown a red card for this incident and Everton played all but 13 minutes of the match with a player disadvantage,
Idrissa Gana Gueye shown a red card by Referee Tony Harrington after clashing with teammate Michael Keane as he is restrained by Jordan Pickford. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Following the game which Everton miraculously won 1-0 at Old Trafford, Gueye took to social media to apologize.
“I want to apologise first to my team-mate Michael Keane,” the player began, in a statement published as an Instagram story. “I take full responsibility for my reaction. I also apologise to my team-mates, 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.”
Before going public, Gueye had already said sorry to the rest of the Everton squad behind closed doors, straight after the full-time whistle in Manchester.
“Idrissa has apologised to us at full-time, said his piece and that’s all he can do,” Dewsbury-Hall, scorer of what proved to be Everton’s winning goal in the first half, told Sky Sports afterwards.
“We move on from it. The reaction from us, was unbelievable. Top tier. We could have crumbled but if anything, it made us grow.
The standard punishment for a straight red card in the Premier League is an automatic three-game ban and it’s left to be seen if the FA will react to this.
As it stands, Gueye will miss Everton’s three upcoming Premier League games against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, and will be eligible to return for the trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on December 13.
