Ex-Man United star makes Steven Gerrard admission as Liverpool icon 'elbow' left manager fuming

Danny Welbeck has weighed in on the debate surrounding Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard

Former Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck has recalled how Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard elbowed him during his loan with Sunderland. The 34-year-old opted to choose Frank Lampard over the ex-Reds captain as the better of the two midfielders after their encounter.

Welbeck was quizzed over the decades-long debate over who was the better midfielder out of the Chelsea legend and Gerrard when discussing his best England teammate. But the Brighton & Hove Albion forward has described an incident involving the midfielder that resulted in a yellow card for the Liverpool legend.

The encounter came during Roy Hodgson's reign at Anfield as Liverpool managed to salvage a draw against the Black Cats thanks to Gerrard's 63rd-minute equaliser.

Welbeck joked about the incident and opted to pick Lampard over Gerrard as his favoured England teammate. He said: "It's so hard, it's really difficult because me growing up, I got to watch them every single weekend. I seen them both week in, week out for years upon years.

"Stevie G, I don't know he remembers this actually, he probably will remember it. He actually one time - I was on loan at Sunderland and I remember when we went to Anfield and he gave me an elbow right across my head.

"Then I think Lee Cattermole's gone over like, 'what's that about?' he's like, 'Oh leave, he's a Manc.' or whatever so, stuff like that.

"I'm going for Lampard. I'm going for Lamps because of that. Yeah Stevie G, you're getting that one [Lampard better]."

At the time, the alleged elbow left Steve Bruce outraged at the Liverpool captain escaping further punishment. The then-Sunderland manager argued: "If it was Lee he would have been sent off.

"You saw it, you can write it. It is a strange one to give a yellow card for that."