Bad blood in England

Posted by JJ Comeau.

Rivalry between two of the Premier Leagues top teams Manchester United and Liverpool FC have been taken to a whole new level for two players.

Patrice Evra. Louis Suarez. Google them and the headlines say it all. Suarez, who is fresh off a 8-game suspension from a spat between himself and Evra back in Ocotber, lit the fuse once again as he refused to shake the United captains hand during the pre-match handshake. In return, Evra proceeded to exaggerate his victory celebration by crossing paths with a head-down Suarez heading to the dressing rooms.

Manchester United pulled off the 2-1 victory at Old Trafford from the luxury of two goals from Wayne Rooney narrowing the gap for the Red Devils as they close within two points of Manchester City. Liverpool, who got their lone goal from Suarez in the 80th minute, remains at the seven spot in the table. Unfortunately, this historical battle between the squads and their goals were immensely overshadowed by the actions of Suarez and Evra.  

The emotional battle started back in October when the Frenchman accused Suarez of being racially abusive to him. As a result, Suarez got slapped with a hefty 8-game suspension that greatly effected the clubs form. In their last 9 games, Liverpool managed a 2-4-3 showing without the deadly striker. Suarez did his time as Livepool suffered and now he was granted the chance to put it behind him, but what would be the fun in that? Instead, the omitting of the pre-match handshake was fuel for more scrutiny for the forward and club as United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was quoted, "The history that club has got... and he does that. It could have caused a riot. I was really disappointed in that guy." We went on to add, "He is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club. That player should not be allowed to play for Liverpool again."

Evra was not about to let Suarez get the best of him this time. As the final whistles blew and teams departed, Evra tracked down Suarez, who was going into the tunnel towards dressing rooms, and started celebrating right next to him, deepening the pain of yet another premier league loss for a broken club.