Inside moment of madness that could see Idrissa Gueye miss TEN GAMES for slapping own team-mate

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It was just about the worst start to an away game at Old Trafford you could imagine. With just 13 minutes on the clock, Everton found themselves down to 10 men and in apparent disarray after Idrissa Gueye lost his head and was shown a red card in bizarre circumstances .

It all started with a run-of-the-mill misunderstanding. Gueye picked up the ball inside his own penalty area and tried to pass to his team-mate Michael Keane, who was not on the same wave length. The stray pass allowed Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes a free shot at goal, which whistled narrowly wide.

Cue shouting from Jordan Pickford and an inquest between the defenders. But that's when things went beyond the normal. Keane and Gueye squared up to each other, with some shoving before the midfielder aimed a little slap at his towering team-mate.

Pickford was quick to pull a furious Gueye away from Keane, but the damage had been done, with referee Tony Harrington on the scene straight away to show the red card. "He's snapped," declared Gary Neville on co-commentary for Sky Sports .

It was just the third time in Premier League history that a player had been dismissed for fighting with a teammate - and the first in 17 years. Gueye joins Ricardo Fuller (Stoke, 2008) and Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer ( Newcastle , 2005) in an unwanted section of the league's annals.

Remarkably, though, Everton did not suffer the same fate as Stoke and Newcastle, who both unsurprisingly lost their matches on that occasion. David Moyes ' side appeared galvanised by the red card on Monday night and dug deep to frustrate an uninspired United.

Pickford made some crucial saves, denying Joshua Zirkzee with a fantastic late stop, to give Everton a hard-fought 1-0 win, courtesy of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's stunning solo effort in the 29th minute.

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There is a sting in the tail for the Toffees, though, who will now be without Gueye for a long time. The midfielder has been handed an automatic three-match suspension for violent conduct, which will rule him out of matches against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest .

Gueye is also part of the Senegal squad which will compete at the Africa Cup of Nations next month, meaning he might not play again for Everton for 10 matches. Senegal's first match is on December 23 and the tournament runs until January 18. Clubs are supposed to release their players for international duty two weeks before the tournament, meaning Gueye could be unavailable for Everton's trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on December 13, when his suspension expires.

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His goal meant Dewsbury-Hall was able to reflect on the game's major talking point in an slightly different tone to if they had lost. "It was just a moment of madness," he told Sky Sports. "It was obviously avoidable. All I can say is Idrissa apologised to us all at half-time and said his piece. That's all he can do and we move on from it.

"The reaction from the lads after it was unbelievable, top tier. We could've easily crumbled, gone in on ourselves and lost the game comfortably, but it probably made us grow even more as a team.

"The manager just said he would deal with the situation another time and it was just about keeping to the plan that we had. He just wanted us to continue what we were doing and focus on the things we can change."

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Everton manager Moyes claimed victory over his former club United and felt that Gueye was unlucky to be sent off for what he felt was an overblown moment. He said: “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.

“If nothing happened [no red card], I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised. I thought the referee could have taken a bit longer to think about it. I was told that [by] the rules of the game that if you slap your own player, you could be in trouble.

“I’m disappointed we got the sending off. But we’ve all been footballers, we get angry with our teammates. He’s apologised for the sending off, he’s praised the players and thanked them for it and apologised.”

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United were without the injured duo of Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha and it showed at Old Trafford as they toiled for 81 minutes against Everton's 10 men. United had 69 per cent of the ball and fired in 25 shots at Pickford's goal without finding the back of the net.

It left United manager Ruben Amorim to choose a surprising line on the Gueye red card. He said: "Fighting is not a bad thing. Fighting doesn't mean that they don't like each other.

"Fighting is that you lose the ball and 'I will fight you because we will suffer a goal'. I hope my players, when they lose the ball, fight each other."

Ultimately, because his team won, Gueye's moment of madness won't be remembered as negatively as those who came before him. But his suspension means Everton will have to do without his services for a long time.

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