Gary Neville thought Declan Rice was very lucky not to have had a penalty awarded against him during the first half of Arsenal’s clash with Chelsea.
It was a clash of corners in the early stages of Arsenal versus Chelsea, as after William Saliba opened the scoring from a corner, a Piero Hincapie own goal at the other end levelled things up.
In the words of Neville on Sky Sports’ live coverage, ‘Arsenal were Arsenal’d’ by their London rivals, who used a corner to undo the Gunners’ work to preserve their lead.
It wasn’t only Chelsea’s equaliser from the corner that Neville spoke about, as in the sequence before the goal, the pundit was roused by an incident involving Rice in the box.
Rice grappled Jorrel Hato before the ball was sent in, then attempted to clear the threat with his arm, a passage of play that Neville couldn’t believe the Arsenal midfielder got away with.
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Set-piece Kings 👑
Gary Neville reacts to Declan Rice penalty incident in Arsenal vs Chelsea
While David Raya was earning praise from his teammates for preventing a goal from being scored, VAR looked into the incident involving Rice and Hato.
Live on Sky Sports commentary, Neville relayed the message he heard from VAR, who opted not to intervene.
“They’ve said basically he’s under physical contact,” Neville stated, as VAR took Hato’s contact with Rice into consideration.
While those at Stockley Park made up their minds, so did Neville, and he didn’t agree with the decision of the officials.
“I’d argue he’s the one imparting physical contact,” the pundit said, adding, “It doesn’t look great for him.”
Answer honestly, was Declan Rice lucky to escape punishment here?
Neville might have thought that Rice was lucky, but when reacting to the incident at half-time, Daniel Sturridge told Sky Sports that it would have been ‘soft’ to see a penalty awarded.
“Yes, the ball does hit his arm, but it would have been soft,” Sturridge admitted.
Rice was saved by both VAR and Raya in that moment, but seconds later, any suspected wrongdoing by the midfielder was answered for, as Chelsea scored with the following corner.
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