‘I like my players fighting’: David Moyes defends Gueye after dramatic bust-up

David Moyes said he likes his ­players “fighting each other” after Idrissa Gueye was sent off in the 13th minute for slapping his teammate Michael Keane in Everton’s 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford .

The victory was a first at Old Trafford in the Premier League for the visitors since 2013. After Gueye’s red card, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 29th-minute strike proved the winner as United lost for a first time in the competition at home after an opponent was reduced to 10 men.

Gueye’s marching orders came after he approached Keane, was pushed away, and then slapped the defender on the cheek, causing the referee, Tony Harrington, to send him off for violent conduct. Gueye later apologised to his teammates.

Moyes 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.”

Defeat ended United’s five-game unbeaten run. Ruben Amorim ­echoed Moyes’s sentiment. The head coach 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 [so] I will fight you because we will suffer a goal. That was how I felt when I watched. And I don’t agree with the sending off.”

United remain on 18 points, two behind Crystal Palace in fifth place, which may again be enough to seal a Champions League place.

Amorim said: “I know at which point we are at the moment. I have that feeling during this [unbeaten] run. I always talk about that – we are not there, not even near the point that we should be to fight for the best positions in the league. We have a lot to do and we need to be perfect to win games. We were not perfect today.”

Matheus Cunha’s head injury ruled him out of the game.