Howard Webb has finally broken his silence on the controversial incidents in the game between Arsenal and Brighton in the Premier League.
The Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw by the Seagulls at the Emirates just before the international break, and that result is the only negative in what has otherwise been a perfect season so far.
Declan Rice got a red card for delaying a restart. Referee Chris Kavanagh’s audio recording of the incident involving Rice and Joel Veltman has been released too.
Webb, who is the Chief refereeing officer of the PGMOL, is adamant that Rice deserved to be sent off, but he has admitted that referee Kavanagh made one other error in the game.
Howard Webb confirms referee error during Arsenal vs Brighton
Kavanagh did not have a great day in the office when Arsenal hosted Brighton.
The referee got plenty of small decisions wrong and the Seagulls seemed to benefit from almost every 50-50 call. That was really frustrating to see.
The biggest moment of the game was definitely Rice’s red card, and Webb has claimed on Sky Sports that the referee had no choice but to send the Arsenal man off.
We don’t agree with that assessment, but there is one thing Webb admitted that we can get on board with – Joao Pedro should’ve been booked.
Pedro kicked the ball away in the first half and the referee completely ignored it. Mikel Arteta’s complaints on the touchline made no difference.
Arsenal fans were furious that Rice was punished for doing something that wasn’t even half as bad as Pedro’s offence in the first half.
Webb has now admitted that Kavanagh made a mistake not booking Pedro.
He said: “He (Pedro) should have been [booked]. It’s a different type of scenario but it sits in the same bracket around delaying the restart. Of course he should have been cautioned here.
“The officials on the field gave him too much benefit of the doubt, feeling that the actions weren’t really impactful because they felt the Arsenal defenders were too far away to take a throw-in, they were too distanced away from the ball, unlike Veltman who was right there.
“But it’s quite clear the actions of Pedro do have an impact and do delay Arsenal’s ability to restart and yes, that should have been a yellow card and we have communicated that to the officials. We want to be consistent with our application of these types of disciplinary sanctions.”
Webb reveals why Joel Veltman didn’t get a red card for kicking Declan Rice
Arteta was furious after the game with the referee’s decision to send Rice off. The Arsenal boss felt that if his midfielder deserved a red card, so did one Brighton defender.
Veltman kicked Rice from behind, leaving the England star on the floor in pain.
That, in our opinion, was worthy of a red card, but Kavanagh completely ignored that decision and so did the VAR officials.
Webb has now claimed that they were right to do so.
“The ball is there, he’s taking a free-kick so it’s difficult to say anything other than that, really,” Webb said.
“He [Veltman] is looking up the field, he goes to kick the ball which is then moved away from him by Rice’s actions.
“So I don’t think there is anything that can be done by that action [of kicking Rice] in those circumstance – when the ball is there to be kicked by a player who has been given a free-kick.”
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