Arsenal made to rue key incident.
Arsenal kept their unbeaten status intact on Saturday afternoon with a hard-fought point against Brighton at home, this was in by no means the result we wanted or needed but we were made to make do with a draw due to the dismissal of Declan Rice early on in the second half. After starting off brightly the gunners seemed to let their opponents into the game in the first half before taking the lead against the run of play when an error at the back allowed Saka to set up Havertz for a sublime chipped effort, this meant that we went into the break one nil up.
But were soon down to ten men after the break when Rice received his second yellow for kicking the ball away( the slightest of flicks), this meant that we had to retreat and play on the counter from there on however Brighton equalized shortly after the red card. We had a few chances on the counter, but everyone knew what a tough ask it would be to win while being a man down.
There is no doubt that that incident reduced our chances of winning drastically. When I first saw Rice getting kicked in real time there was no doubt in my mind that Veltman would be the one sent off, only for me to be left perplexed when Rice received a second yellow.
Looking at the replays however Rice clearly kicked the ball away but in his defence he wasn’t looking back and couldn’t have known Veltman was about to take the freekick, even though I think Veltman knew exactly what his was doing when he hacked Declan down. Eventually, though I think we fell victim to the law, the referee’s willingness to follow the law to the letter, in particular given how that could have been overlooked in another day.
The refereeing throughout the game was inconsistent, in a game littered with incidents of double standards being showed by the Referee, one moment in particular in the first half when Joao Pedro kicked the ball in frustration while out of play, this was not punished however Rice’s slight flick of the ball was, this has left me and many gooners feeling cheated but could have been easily avoided by Declan.
With our midfield being light ahead of the visit to Tottenham, who will be replacing Declan Rice in that game?
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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