The Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation after reports of an altercation at the Emirates Stadium appearing to involve Everton forward Thierno Barry\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred towards the end of the Merseyside club\u2019s 2-0 loss to Arsenal on Saturday.<\/p>\n
After the match, Barry, 23, posted a video on Instagram of multiple people engaged in a fight in the Emirates\u2019 away end. He followed this with a statement calling the behaviour \u201cunacceptable\u201d and that his friends \u201cwere attacked\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bring my friends to enjoy a game, and it gets ruined by a few silly people,\u201d he continued. \u201cFootball should be a place where everyone feels safe and respected. This type of attitude has no place in the game and is simply not tolerated in football.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends and the people who were attacked had to be escorted by the Arsenal club\u2019s security staff as well as the police because of fears of retaliation from our supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/03\/15081347\/GettyImages-2260092357.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n Barry, who came on as a substitute, posted a video of the incident after the match (Peter Nicholls\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On Sunday, Barry posted another statement on his Instagram story, refuting speculation that he had provided tickets to Arsenal fans.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the information circulating does not reflect reality,\u201d he wrote. \u201cContrary to what has been suggested, I never gave tickets to Arsenal supporters. The people who were present to support me have always followed the clubs I have played for throughout my career, from Beveren to Basel, through Villarreal and now Everton. Yesterday, some of them were even wearing an Everton shirt with my name on it.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the match, they were approached twice by supporters who asked whether they were supporting the opposing team. They clearly stated that this was not the case and that they were there to support me.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, the people visible in some of the videos are not members of my family. They are relatives of another player from the team. Unfortunately, they were confronted by a group of supporters who mistakenly believed they were celebrating Arsenal\u2019s goal. The stewards present witnessed the scene. My friends were insulted, how is that even possible?\u201d<\/p>\n The Met confirmed no serious injuries had been reported and there had been no arrests at the time.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Met said: \u201cAn investigation is under way following an altercation in the away section towards the end of Arsenal\u2019s match against Everton on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficers and stewards responded to the incident. No serious injuries were reported. Enquiries are ongoing and we are working with both clubs to identify those involved.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been no arrests.\u201d<\/p>\n Everton confirmed on Sunday that they were \u201caware of an incident involving supporters in the away section at Emirates Stadium and will review the circumstances surrounding it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cViolent or disorderly behaviour is completely unacceptable and has no place in football,\u201d the club added. \u201cIt does not reflect the passionate and loyal support Everton receives both home and away.<\/p>\n \u201cThe club will work with the relevant authorities to establish the facts and take any appropriate action.\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal declined to comment when approached by The Athletic<\/em>.<\/p>\n Barry came on as a substitute in the 70th minute for Beto but was not able to affect the scoreline.<\/p>\n Arsenal left it late but extended their lead at the top of the table with a Viktor Gyokeres goal in the 89th minute and a Max Dowman solo finish into an empty net in stoppage time. Dowman\u2019s goal made him the youngest-ever Premier League scorer at the age of 16 years and 73 days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation after reports of an altercation at the Emirates Stadium appearing to involve Everton forward Thierno Barry\u2019s friends. The incident occurred towards the end … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}