In the aftermath of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion, only one incident has dominated the conversation.
Declan Rice’s contentious red card against Brighton remains a talking point that is dominating the media, with everybody having an opinion on the incident.
Mikel Arteta was disappointed to not receive an explanation for Rice’s dismissal, whilst Gary Lineker and Danny Murphy clashed over the red card on Match of the Day.
After being booked for a foul on Joel Veltman in the first half, Rice committed a foul on the same player deep in the Brighton backline. As Veltman looked to take the freekick quickly, the Arsenal man was adjudged to have flicked the ball away.
Therefore, Rice was deemed to have interfered with the restart of play and received his marching orders from referee Chris Kavanagh. Former Premier League official Mark Halsey criticised Kavanagh’s decision, as the debate surrounding the decision has continued beyond the final whistle.
As the football world tries to understand the rules which led to Rice’s dismissal, Brighton took to TikTok to send a cheeky reminder to the Arsenal midfielder that ‘rules are rules.’
Ex-Arsenal star Danny Welbeck played a key role in Declan Rice’s red card
In the video, ex-Arsenal man Danny Welbeck is shown to be front and centre of the immediate aftermath of the incident.
As Kavanagh attempts to make sense of what has happened, Welbeck gestures a card with his hand and says: “it’s a second yellow!”
Kavanagh then enters the shot to brandish the card and send Rice off, with Welbeck there to gleefully agree with the referee’s decision amongst the Gunners’ protestations.
It would be unfair to the referee to say that he had been influenced by Welbeck’s antics, but Kavanagh should have shown the Brighton striker a yellow of his own for the illegal gesturing of a card.
This irony is clearly not lost on Brighton’s TikTok team, whose choice to release this footage will surely infuriate Arsenal fans long into the upcoming international break.
Can Arsenal cope without Declan Rice against Tottenham?
Rice is undoubtedly one of Arteta’s key players. The English midfielder featured in every Premier League match for Arsenal last season and helped his side close the gap on Manchester City to just two points.
With new signing Mikel Merino injured, Arteta will have to think hard about how to replace Rice for the North London derby against Tottenham.
However, last season’s home fixture against their bitter rivals saw one of the few times that Arsenal played without Rice for a significant period of a game.
With the scores level at 1-1 going into halftime, Arteta substituted Rice for Jorginho in what was a purely tactical decision.
The Italian would go on to make a costly error to help Spurs equalise again, with the match eventually finishing 2-2.
Although the change did not work on that occasion, Arteta clearly saw something in Rice’s performance that he wasn’t satisfied with. It remains to be seen whether Jorginho, or someone else, can offer whatever Rice was lacking in the fixture last season this time around.
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