Top 5 controversial moments in the Merseyside Derby

The Merseyside Derby – the fixture between Liverpool and Everton which has the most red cards ever shown in the Premier League eraIn 1892, the Everton FC board walked out of Anfield and their Chairman John Houlding and started playing out of a newly purchased Goodison Park stadium just a mile across on the other side of Stanley Park. Houlding responded by starting a new club, Liverpool – and thus began one of the most famous football derbies in the world.Known as the “friendly derby” for its often-good natured rivalry, with support lines splitting families and colleagues with nary a distinction between religion, geography or political preferences, the derby has gotten slightly more violent and nasty off and on the pitch than it used to be. In the Premier League era, it holds the record for most red cards in any matchup with an astounding 20.Even though the Merseyside Derby has fallen from its former glorious heights in terms of sheer impact on the championship results – especially in the 1970s and 1980s when they had the best two teams in England (and sometimes, even Europe); it still retains all its charm while somehow also becoming the perfect little encapsulation of everything we love and hate about the English Premier League.Played at a fast tempo with dangerously wild and recklessly late challenges and tactics that aren’t always spot-on, the drama is never ending and the hype is always all consuming while controversy is never far away. We take a look at five of the most controversial Derby moments in the EPL era. 

#1 Robbie Fowler \"eats grass\"

3 April 1999, Anfield: Everton took everybody by surprise when an absolute screamer from Olivier Dacourt put them up in the first minute, but Liverpool were the better team post that and got their just reward when a penalty was awarded (rightfully) within 15 minutes.  As was customary back then, Robbie Fowler stepped up and calmly slotted in a perfect to-the-bottom-corner penalty.

There was nothing calm about his celebrations, though.

Having listened to the away support harangue him with insult after insult on his alleged history of drug abuse, the self-confessed Everton-fan-turned-Reds-legend completely lost it, and crawling on all fours, he mimicked snorting a stretch of the white line that marked the Anfield turf. 

After the game ended, his manager Gérard Houllier attempted to explain it away by saying that this was a Cameroonian grass eating celebration Fowler had learnt from teammate Rigobert Song, but no-one really bought that load of tosh. A four-game suspension by the FA and a £60,000 fine by his own club swiftly followed.

Result: The barnstorming match ended 3-2 in favour of Liverpool.

Bonus: Everton could have equalized at the dying moments of the match after David James pulled out an impromptu Rene Higuita impression and rushing out of his box to clear a ball he was never getting to. The ball fell to Kevin Campbell, but his swivel was blocked by a young midfielder wearing no. 28. The young man – playing in his first Merseyside Derby – got up immediately to block Danny Cardameteri’s follow-up shot from rolling into an empty net. 

The 18-year-old Anfield Hero’s name? Steven Gerrard.