Six infamous bust-ups between teammates

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The Football Faithful

·2. April 2025

Six infamous bust-ups between teammates

Teammates are supposed to win together and lose together. They’re not meant to fight, but throughout the years we’ve seen tensions boil over.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the Premier League’s most shocking moments, as Newcastle midfielders Lee Bowyer and Keiron Dyer traded blows on the pitch.

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A St James’ Park s***show went from bad to worse with the Magpies already 3-0 down to Aston Villa and at a man disadvantage after Stephen Taylor was sent off for deliberate handball.

The frustration took hold of Newcastle teammates Bowyer and Dyer, who ended up being red-carded after an astonishing punch-up between the pair – leaving Newcastle down to eight men.

In tribute, we’ve remembered six famous bust-ups between teammates.

Six times teammates got into a fight:

Anwar El Ghazi vs Tyrone Mings, 2019

The two players had a, erm, disagreement during Aston Villa‘s goalless draw with West Ham United in September that quickly descended into a physical confrontation.

Strong words were clearly being had before the two squared up and El Ghazi bumped heads with the centre-back. It went no further than that, but the two had to be kept apart by several players.

It was relatively harmless by the standards of some really heated brawls between teammates in the past, and Mike Dean gave them a stern talking to, but refrained from whipping out the red card.

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Lee Bowyer vs Kieron Dyer, 2005

There are days in football where you just get fed up, the frustration levels are rising and you’re set to blow. With Newcastle United losing 3-0 to Aston Villa and down to ten men, both Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer got to this stage and took it out on each other.

🗓 ON THIS DAY IN 2005: 🤬 Newcastle’s Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer were both sent off after their on-field fight with each other The Magpies were already 3-0 down and a man short after Steven Taylor's dismissal 😂
– Donnerstag, 2. April 2020

Afterwards, Magpies boss Graeme Souness said he had “never seen anything like it”, which is really saying something.

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Emmanuel Adebayor vs Nicklas Bendtner, 2008

It’s never nice losing a derby, but when Arsenal were 4-1 down to Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup semi-finals in 2008, strike partners Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner started pushing and shoving each other.

The Dane came away with a bloody nose, while Arsene Wenger typically claimed not to have seen the incident.

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Craig Bellamy vs John Arne Riise, 2007

After a team night out during a warm-weather training camp, the Welshman attacked Riise with a golf club in his hotel room. The Norwegian later wrote that he was lucky his shins weren’t broken and his career ended there and then.

Bellamy celebrated his equaliser for Liverpool against Barcelona by performing a mock golf swing, revealing the “sincerity of his apology” for his cowardly act of violence.

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David Batty vs Graeme le Saux, 1995

It took just four minutes of Blackburn Rovers’ Champions League tie against Spartak Moscow for Batty and Le Saux to have a right go at each other.

The two bundled into each other chasing an errant pass, and it soon descended into shoving, throat-grabbing and Le Saux even threw a punch at Batty. Rovers ended up losing the game 3-0.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y3fuTicq8w

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Thomas Gravesen vs Robinho, 2006

Former Everton hard man Gravesen has never been one for pulling out of a tackle, but after leaving one in on Robinho during a pre-season training camp the Brazilian decided he would retaliate by throwing a punch at his teammate. Big mistake.

The Dane went for his Real Madrid colleague, and the two had to be separated by the rest of the squad.

Gravesen left the Spanish capital that summer, moving to Scottish outfit Celtic, while Robinho left two years later for newly meg-rich club Manchester City.

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