Both Arsenal and Manchester United players were embroiled in a furious brawl after the Gunners were awarded a controversial penalty in their FA Cup third-round clash.
Tempers boiled over when Kai Havertz was adjudged to have been fouled by Harry Maguire inside the box, with the referee promptly pointing to the spot.
There is no VAR used in this round of the cup, adding to the visitors’ anger at the Emirates, before a 20-man melee erupted and Havertz fell to the floor.
The German forward was grappling with Alejandro Garnacho and Manuel Ugarte before he was felled, while Alan Shearer on BBC commentary said that Maguire had to be “calmed down”.
The incident came in an explosive second half which saw Gabriel cancel out Bruno Fernandes’ opener, after Ruben Amorim’s side had been reduced to 10 men.
Diogo Dalot was shown a second yellow card for a heavy challenge on Mikel Merino, though the tie had threatened to boil over early on when captain Fernandes fumed at Andrew Madley when he was not awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box.
The Portuguese playmaker threw his shoe in frustration at the decision and was booked for dissent.
But the United players who were rejoicing shortly after, as deputising goalkeeper Altay Bayindir stood tall and flung himself to stop Martin Odegaard’s spot-kick.
Maguire, Gabriel and Havertz were all shown yellow cards for their roles in the brawl, which saw an unapologetic Maguire run up to Havertz and ask why he went down with minimal contact.
Gabriel then spotted their conversation and went over to shove Maguire, before Ugarte also got involved and Havertz fell to the floor, all with no VAR to intervene.
Fernandes had opened the scoring via a flowing counter-attack and smart work by Garnacho, though the skipper still had plenty to do with a bouncing cross which he rifled past David Raya.
Down to 10 men, United were subjected to even more pressure from Arsenal and the hosts got their reward.
Gabriel Martinelli’s cross was not dealt with fully by Bayindir and after Kobbie Mainoo also failed to clear the ball, it eventually fell to Gabriel who swivelled and his effort deflected into the back of the net.
