Top 50 Most Shocking Moments! 20-11

Time for numbers 20-11 of the Top 50 Most Shocking Moments in Premier League History!

20. Crossing the line

April 3, 1999

xHaving suffered the taunts of Everton fans for taking a performance-enhancing ‘drug’, Robbie Fowler saw fit to get one back after scoring an equaliser at Anfield. But with the police taking interest in his actions, as well as the FA, it's fair to say he took things a bit too far.

After smashing his spot-kick, Fowler sprinted straight towards the end and crawled along the byline, mimicking the snorting of cocaine in front of the furious fans.

Team-mate Steve McManaman dragged him up from the turf, but Fowler was soon down on the ground again making the same gesture before shaking his fists.

A four-game ban was given to Fowler, in addition to the two games that he was ruled out for his abuse of Graeme Le Saux.

19. Keown 'congratulates' Van Nistelrooy

September 21, 2003

Seeing Martin Keown, eyes wide with joy, after Ruud van Nistelrooy had missed a last-minute penalty became one of the defining images of the Manchester United-Arsenal rivalry, on a day that would prove crucial in the team’s unbeaten status on the Premier League title.

Van Nistelrooy had been involved earlier in the game in an incident that saw Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira kicked out, with the Dutchman deemed by the Frenchman's team-mates to have exaggerated a kick-out following an aerial challenge.

The United striker drove his spot-kick on to the crossbar and Keown was straight in his face to rub it in, followed by the rest of his Arsenal team-mates as a 22-man confrontation broke out.

Keown wrote about the story.

'Perhaps I overreacted, but the whole team was infuriated by him,' he said. 'And I'm still not convinced I deserved to give away the penalty that Ruud eventually missed!'

18. Thatcher throws his elbow

August 23, 2006

Ben Thatcher's elbow on Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes remains a shocking image for all those that witnessed it.

Though Thatcher escaped with just a yellow card as Dermot Gallagher missed the sickening smash, he was later banned for eight matches as the FA circumvented its own rules for his 'serious foul play', as well as fined six weeks of wages.

With Mendes chasing a bouncing ball, Thatcher was clearly not going to win it before the Portsmouth man. As the two came together, the he (Thatcher) threw his arm straight into Mendes' face, and his opponent appeared to be out cold even before he hit the ground and slid head-first into the advertising hoardings.

After his hospital discharge the next day, Mendes did not push any further action against Thatcher.

17. Team-talk on the pitch for Brown

December 26, 2008

When your side is 4-0 down at half-time, managers must find ways to engage their players and boost their confidence out in the field. Phil Brown of Hull had a fairly unorthodox way of going about it.

Rather than conduct the dressing down in the changing rooms, the tanned boss picked the penalty area in front of the away end to tear into his players.

'I thought it was nice and cold and I thought I would keep the boys alive because they looked as if they were dead,' Brown said. 'Our 4,000 travelling fans deserved some kind of explanation for the first-half performance and it was difficult for me to do that from the confines of a changing room. We owed them an apology for the first-half performance.'

The second half was slightly better as Hull went home with just a 5-1 defeat. What a sport!

16. Adebayor takes revenge on Arsenal

September 12, 2009

A player scoring against his former club tends to be regarded as a pointless gesture these days, but the stewards working in the away end when Manchester City faced Arsenal in 2009 would have wished Emmanuel Adebayor had embraced the tired tradition.

Manchester’s supporters were not a happy bunch, booing and directing chants at their ex-centre forward.

But then Adebayor scored in the 80th minute. Having headed the ball past Manuel Almunia, the former Gunner ran the length of the pitch to slide on his knees in front of the away section. Coins, lighters and even a plastic chair rained down on the Adebayor as his team-mates hurriedly beckoned him away from the riot kicking off in the stands.

One unfortunate consequence was an injury to a steward caught up in the mob. Adebayor apologised for that but not for the way he reacted towards the Arsenal fans and went on to say: 'Players should feel like they can celebrate a goal without the fear of being hit by things.'

15. Eduardo's leg break

February 23, 2008

WARNING - GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPH BELOW

The fact that television stations wouldn't dare to repeat the images of Eduardo's horror leg break under the challenge of Birmingham City's Martin Taylor go to show just how shocking a moment this was.

With less than three minutes gone at St Andrew's, Taylor flew in for a challenge on the Croatian striker, but as Eduardo nimbly nipped the ball away from his foot, Taylor's studs smashed into his leg, above his ankle and left the bottom of his limb hanging off.

Sky Sports chose not to show a close-up such was the sickening nature of the injury and Match of the Day limited its coverage too. Taylor was shown a straight red by Mike Dean but only received a three-match ban despite calls from FIFA president Sepp Blatter for that number to be increased.

Arsene Wenger initially said that Taylor should 'never play football again'. The former Blackburn player claimed to have visited Eduardo in hospital and that an apology was accepted. Eduardo, however, could not remember the visit or even the tackle that nobody else could forget. He was never quite the same and left Arsenal for Shakhtar Donetsk two years later.

14. Bosnich gives a Nazi salute against Spurs

October 12, 1996

Another example of players responding to the taunts of fans - but if you thought Adebayor's reaction was a little excessive, Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich took things to a much more sinister level.

Tottenham fans at White Hart Lane had been baiting the 24-year-old after a controversial incident two years previously with Spurs' German star Jurgen Klinsmann. Bosnich responded by raising one arm in a Nazi-style salute and used his other hand to display a makeshift moustache. Spurs, of course, have a famously strong Jewish following.

The Aussie stopper used the slightly unusual excuse of claiming he was imitating a scene from Fawlty Towers and stressed that he had not intended to offend and did not know about Tottenham's Jewish links. 'If it had been intentional, I should be in jail,' he said.

Bosnich got off lightly. His offence was not spotted by the referee and he was later fined just £1,000 by the FA after he was found guilty of misconduct.

13. Bent's beach ball goal

October 17, 2009

Fans pride themselves on being their side's 12th man, but one Liverpool supporter effectively scored an own goal for his side with the misguided throw of a beach ball on a trip to the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland striker Darren Bent latched on to a loose ball on the edge of Pepe Reina's penalty area and while his shot was powerful, it rolled along the turf seemingly straight towards the waiting goalkeeper. But, it cannoned off the beach ball – complete with Liverpool crest – thrown from the away end, changed direction and left Reina baffled as it flew past him and into the net.

The fan at fault, 16-year-old Callum Campbell, received death threats from fellow Reds supporters and claimed to have been physically sick after condemning his side to defeat.

Somehow, Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez managed to avoid blaming the incident for his side's defeat, saying it was 'just one of those things', even though the referee should have stopped the game due to the 'outside interference' according to the letter of the law.

12. Gerrard slips

April 27, 2014

After 24 years without the title coming to Anfield, 2013-14 finally looked like the year for Liverpool to win the Premier League. The team coach was greeted each week by hundreds of supporters singing 'we're gonna win the league' and the table-toppers were three winnable games from the title having already seen off Manchester City earlier in the month.

A weakened Chelsea side, in the middle of two Champions League semi-final legs, were the visitors at Anfield and captain Steven Gerrard, who had been finding a new life at the base of Liverpool's midfield, had the chance to step past the final hurdle towards filling that space in his trophy cabinet. But just before half-time, everything went wrong.

Letting a pass from Mamadou Sakho roll under his foot, Gerrard prepared to rake out one of those cross-field passes that we have all grown so used to over the years. But his right foot slipped beneath him as he let the ball run a little too far, and suddenly the Liverpool skipper was face-down on the turf. Demba Ba ran on to the loose ball to complete the simplest of tasks, tucking it past Simon Mignolet to put Chelsea ahead.

Liverpool strived to find an equaliser but couldn't as Jose Mourinho's men sat deep and by the time Willian broke through on goal in the closing stages to net a second, Gerrard's title dream was all-but done. A 3-3 draw against Crystal Palace a week later only furthered Manchester City's advantage, and that slip arguably leaves him as the Premier League's best player never to lift the trophy.

11. The Suarez-Evra saga

October 15, 2011

Luis Suarez's time in the Premier League will be remembered for the controversy he courted as much as the goals he scored, and his on-field spat with Patrice Evra during Manchester United's visit to Anfield would run and run. To this day Suarez still sees himself as a targeted hate-figure for the English press.

According to the FA disciplinary committee, Liverpool's Uruguayan forward used the word 'negro' repeatedly towards Evra on the field and at one point told the Frenchman: 'I don't speak to blacks'. Suarez admitted to the use of the word 'negro' but, having arrived in England just nine months previous, said it was taken differently in his native Spanish.

Liverpool's players, offering their support before the FA banned him for eight games, wore shirts with Suarez's image while warming up ahead of a game against Wigan Athletic. Manager Kenny Dalglish also sported one. Having served the ban, Suarez then refused to shake Evra's hand when the two teams next met at Old Trafford in February 2012. Evra responded by celebrating a 2-1 victory by geeing up the home supporters in front of a dejected Suarez.

It was an ugly series of events, all sparked by Suarez's continued abuse and use of inappropriate language on the field. The one good thing that did come out of it was a revision of the FA's rule to extend the maximum ban that could be given for racism.

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References:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3011045/Top-50-shocking-moments-Premier-League-history-20-11-Robbie-Fowler-oversteps-line-Steven-Gerrard-lets-title-slip-Liverpool-s-fingers.html