Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was sent off in a controversial decision in the Gunners’ home game against Brighton before the international break. Now the audio from the incident has been provided by the Premier League.
Arsenal ended up drawing the game, after Joao Pedro equalized when the gunners were down to 10 men. This is the only game Arsenal have conceded in this season. Rice missed out on the North London derby win over Spurs.
The performance to secure the 1-0 win on Sunday was praised by Mikel Arteta, who believes winning ‘ugly’ is something the team can learn from this season.
Premier League provide audio of Declan Rice incident
The audio from the incident was on the Premier Legaue’s “Match Officials Mic’d Up” show in which former referee Howard Webb was on the panel.
“I don’t like it, but he’s knocked the ball.” Chris Kavanagh said on the audio replay.
“Second yellow, for me. I had no choice, he knocks the ball away. As (Veltman’s) about to kick it, he knocks the ball,” he is heard to say.
“I have no choice. He’s put me in an awful position. Dec, you need to go I’m afraid.”
Rice’s sending off completely changed the flow of the game, as Arsenal were dominating the game.
After the game, Mikel Arteta was furious with the decision:
“I was amazed,” said Arteta. “Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens.
“Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan [on the back of his leg], he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball.
“By law, he can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is a red card so we play 10vs10. This is what amazed me. At this level it’s amazing.”
Webb agrees with red card decision
Former Premier League referee Howard Webb, who is now the chief operating officer of referees’ body the PGMOL, gave his insight on the decision.
“We’ve messaged very clearly and strongly to the players in pre-season around the importance of not getting involved with the ball once the whistle is gone, not delaying the restart in that way,” Webb said.
“Once he’s seen Declan Rice deliberately, clearly kick that ball away from the position of that free-kick, then I don’t think he’s got any choice.”
Webb also added that sometimes the referee’s on field decision can be wrong, referencing an incident involving Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the Everton vs Brighton game.
“Sometimes the referee’s call will be clearly and obviously wrong and in this case it was,” Webb said.
“So that’s a good example of a situation where the referee’s call was wrong and it needed intervention by the VAR.”
