Mikel Arteta is unhappy with the lack of consistency in decision-making in the Premier League after more drama cost Arsenal two points against Brighton this afternoon.
The Gunners were leading the game 1-0 before Declan Rice was sent off for a second bookable offence when the referee deemed him to have delayed the restart of play.
It was the softest of yellow cards, and the sending-off hurt Arsenal, who eventually conceded an equalising goal.
Earlier in the game, a Brighton player kicked the ball out of play after the referee’s whistle had blown, but they were not cautioned, even though they should have been.
The decision to send Rice off has been met with widespread criticism, and Mikel Arteta admits it is frustrating when decisions are not consistent.
He said, as quoted by Sky Sports:
“If it happens throughout the game in a consistent way, that is fine. But it did not happen. In the first half, there are a number of occasions where they kick the ball away and nothing happened. So it is the inconsistency.
“Especially because it is in an area where it is not critical and on top of that if you make that call you have to give a red card [to Joel Veltman] as well. If we have to play with 10 then they have to play with 10 because it is a red card for Veltman.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It hurts to be on the wrong end of inconsistent decisions, and the Premier League must do better in ensuring consistency.
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Ridiculous decision.
It seems some referees deliberately act to hurt Arsenal. It is the only logical conclusion.
I do think João Pedro should have been booked as well for kicking the ball away earlier in the game (seeing as that’s supposedly being enforced more strongly now), but it was a very different situation to the one with rice. I don’t think we can have too many complaints about the sending off itself, but it seems general consistency may have been an issue in this game
It was a different situation but the same rules apply. An honest referee would have applied the same rules.
Exactly
In my view, Arteta was right.
The arguments have been raging regarding Rice being sent off, but the total lack of consistency in decision making by referees is having a material effect on the outcome of matches.
I’m not nearly enough up to speed to know the intricasies of all the football rules, but I do wonder at times if the referee on any given day and with any given team, thinks it through before getting a yellow or red card out?
As soon as a ref brandishes a yellow card, that should set down a marker for the rest of the match. DId that happen today?
Guys have noticed when that free kick was taken the ball was still moving,I think var should have done more
The freekick was never taken because rice kicked it away, so it’s not possible they took a freekick with a moving ball. I don’t think Var can’t intervene for a yellow card decision anyway.
No, Rice didn’t kick the ball away, you’ve missed out, once again, what happened first.
The ball was thrown, hit, or whatever terminology you want to use and it hit part of Rice’s body, you can name the actual part… that’s when the referee should have made his decision, as that’s when the first offence took place.
What happened after that is irrelevant, as he should at the very minimum, blown up for said infringement,had a word with both players, booked the defender for his foul on Rice and then ensure that the ball was placed in the proper stationary position, blown his whistle and the game restarted.
Missing out on the sequence of events, won’t make your scenario correct.
Off topic (and for all on JA) but interesting nevertheless, are the stats being produced when this official has refereed us before.
Nothing to do with what happened with Rice, but does give some facts and figures that align with his overall and inconsistent performance today.
“No, Rice didn’t kick the ball away, you’ve missed out, once again, what happened first.”
Regardless what you think happened first, rice did in fact kick the ball away. It’s not hard to go and look at the incident.
“The ball was thrown, hit, or whatever terminology you want to use and it hit part of Rice’s body, you can name the actual part… that’s when the referee should have made his decision, as that’s when the first offence took place.
What happened after that is irrelevant, as he should at the very minimum, blown up for said infringement,had a word with both players, booked the defender for his foul on Rice and then ensure that the ball was placed in the proper stationary position, blown his whistle and the game restarted”
Have you actually seen it?! This is completely ridiculous and I wish you’d go watch it so you can understand how embarrassing this is. No “infringement” was made towards rice in that moment.
Actually, you need to go back and look and lack at the precise sequence of events which is what Ken1945 has described.
No infringement was made against rice by the ball touching him – that’s completely absurd.
Of course an infringement took place, unless you think that a player can use an opponent to gain an advantage in a dead ball situation.
The ball itself had not be deemed active, as the referee hadn’t blown his whistle, the ball was moving and it hadn’t been placed down ready to take.
Which of those four issues that all took place before ANY action by Rice are you disputing and how did the ball come into contact with him anyway?
Don’t be foolish enough to say I need to watch it – I have, I was there and it’s been on the Internet for all to see.
“Don’t be foolish enough to say I need to watch it – I have, I was there and it’s been on the Internet for all to see” – then why can you not accurately describe what happened? Why have you continuously said the ball was thrown at rice’s legs? You can’t even say rice kicked the ball away.
I’m not going to bother with the rest – you’re making things up in your head. Utterly ridiculous, ken
I’m going to stop replying about this now.
Davi…… I think the offense is you don’t make an attempt on kicking a moving ball.
Isn’t it about time we moved on from that decision? Since VAR can’t intervene to remove a second yellow, unless it deemed it to be a straight red, then we must accept that is done and dusted, however annoying that maybe
The problem is people create narratives around what happened, which continue to fuel the whole anti-arsenal conspiracy / victim mindset. If not answered (well, even if they are, I suppose) these just grow and in 6 months everyone will remember it as “rice got sent off for being kicked by a Brighton defender”. Then it’s added to the pile of grievances and more and more people become invested in the victim mindset. Don’t suppose it helps much, but I think it’s good to provide accuracy when possible.
One can see the situation completely clearly and say they don’t think rice should have been sent off because the ref could have been lenient – that’s completely different from saying there’s a technical reason he shouldn’t have been sent off and the ref plain got it wrong.
Davi,
That last paragraph throws up a completely different scenario and one that referees sometimes adopt and at other times do not. This all boils down to inconsistency. It makes me wonder occasionally if they try to ‘even things up’ subconsciously during a match. (Having been too harsh on one issue, to then try and make amends)
It still doesn’t make it right
Oh I definitely think there’s lots of subconscious attempts to even things out and things like “I missed that one, I’ll get it right next time”, which does contribute to inconsistencies. Even just being in a different mood on a given day, had a bad week so they have less patience than usual – they’re only human. The better quality refs won’t get themselves into those situations so often but I don’t think it’s helpful to be putting doubt in their minds – if at the back of their minds they’re thinking “what if I am biased against arsenal/whoever?”, they’re surely more likely to get into those situations where they might feel they need to even things out.
SueP, there was no attempt whatsoever to even things up out there today.
It was one of the most one sided refereeing displays I’ve witnessed in a very long time.
I don’t know how the TV covered the game, but there was no protection for Saka, the number of fouls against us not being given was ridiculous and the inconsistencies favoured Brighton in nearly every instance.
I’ve never witnessed such a reaction by the crowd to a referee at full time, even when Mike Dean was in full flow!!
If one believes that the majority of the 50 odd thousand Arsenal fans got it wrong at full time, then so be it – all I know is that referee was not subconsciously trying to even things up, he was consciously doing the complete opposite.
Your twisting it again – no one is saying the referee should have been lenient, no one is saying that Rice was kicked by a defender and only some are saying it’s an anti Arsenal conspiracy.
You are correct, however,, in saying that it is clear to see what happened and yet you fail to mention it – the technical reason, or just plainly obvious, is that the defenders first act was to, by whatever means, manage to get the ball to come in contact with part of Rice’s anatomy.
The referee must have seen that (as he saw what went on afterwards it seems) so he should have acted on that immediately… but he didn’t and that’s why he got it plain wrong.
The argument about whether Rice deliberately kicked the ball away, whether the ball had been correctly spotted, or even if the official had blown fir the free kick to be taken, along with the foul on Rice afterwards become irrelevant of only he had acted on the first infringement by the defender.
No one is asking for leniency, that’s pathetic and not in the rules, but if there’s a technical reason (or otherwise) that’s covered in the rules, then that’s
what should have happened.. and it didn’t.
I note that some have questioned the attitude of Rice lately, but, interestingly it’s the first time he’s been sent off in his career.
The referee was awful every minute of the game. Rice should have stayed focused and not moved the ball at all, especially based on the referee’s approach during the game.
The referee was so inconsistent that one wonders whether he was incompetent or had an agenda against Arsenal FC.
“Your twisting it again – no one is saying the referee should have been lenient, no one is saying that Rice was kicked by a defender and only some are saying it’s an anti Arsenal conspiracy.”
I’m not twisting anything – this was not aimed at you. I was speaking hypothetically, and actually I’ve seen all of those things mentioned by different people on here and on YouTube (which is why they came to mind!).
I have seen people saying the ref should have been lenient, and I find that far more defensible, as it’s just an opinion, than the idea that this first offence was the ball touching rice – no foul was committed there whatsoever, the idea is utterly absurd.
I found rice’s behaviour in that incident to be very strange and completely out of character – they mentioned in commentary that it was his first sending off, and I remember when he was first booked thinking he was one of our most reliable players to be on a yellow card. It doesn’t matter wrt the red card, though – his actions were punished, not his record.
Ken1945 described the precise sequence of events which underlies his point.
The decision is being defended as if it was technically correct. However, if you go through the sequence of what happened the decision was highly questionable.
It really wasn’t. This is the mental gymnastics desperate people go through to justify why arsenal are the victims.
I disagree. There are no mental gymnastics here. It is a simple analysis of what happened.
The Brighton player clearly moved the ball forward. This in itself could be considered an attempt to gain advantage.
He then kicked the ball against Rice. It was only after this and whilst the ball was in motion that Rice knocked the ball to the side. At the same time the Brighton player swung his leg and caught Rice. This too could be considered an offence.
Perhaps there may be something to be said about the ref’s decision making, okay fair enough.
Perhaps the players may share a similar opinion as the fans about his calls. All the more reason to mind yourself and maintain composure.
If a player thought the ref was unfair, then don’t put yourself in positions where they make a decision against you.
Pepe’s “headbut,” Xhaka’s tackles at times, Gabriel M. losing composure and getting cards because he is controlled by emotions sometimes.
I’m not defending a poor ref performance, but he wasn’t making up decisions or pulling them out of thin air, he carded based on the rules.
I don’t defend Rice, he should have been more proactive after his first card. The main problem isn’t Rice but inconsistent judgement. There’s no problems with the rules, but with the referees subjective interpretation of the rules.
When people were saying that Arsenal “just came up short” last season, I pointed to decisions as making the difference.
This kind of thing turns winning the PL into being 2nd.Football is hardly worth watching when there are fine lines between the teams and the outcome is decided by what officials decide to do at any given moment.
Was the referee consistent in his judgement, or generally inconsistent?