Red card for Declan Rice: Five reasons why Arsenal midfielder was right to be ‘shocked’ by Brighton red card | Football News

By the letter of the law, Declan Rice’s second yellow card for Arsenal vs Brighton was justified. But here are five reasons why he was rightly “shocked” by his dismissal…

The England midfielder was sent off by Chris Kavanagh four minutes after the break for kicking the ball away and delaying the restart of play following a foul on Joel Veltman.

There is no doubt that the Arsenal player touched the ball to take it from Veltman as he moved to take the free-kick he had just been awarded, but the Brighton defender eventually caught Rice.

But watch the incident again a few times and questions arise as to whether a yellow card, and certainly a red card that led to a foul, was the best punishment.

Reason 1: If Joao Pedro can do it…

Before half-time, Joao Pedro cleared the ball after Kavanagh had blown his whistle. This incident is probably worse than Rice’s, given the relative delay and the distance his shot travelled.

Unlike Rice, Pedro was not punished, or even spoken to, by Kavanagh. It is hardly the first incident of inconsistent refereeing in Premier League history, but why did Pedro get away with it while Rice was sent for an early bath?

Reason 2: The ball was moving when Rice touched it

This one should kill the whole argument. Watch the video above of the incident where Rice was sent off, and you’ll clearly see the ball moving before Rice pushes it away.

So even if Veltman had made contact with the ball, rather than Rice, and was able to take the free kick quickly, then, if we are doing everything according to the letter of the law, I would like to draw your attention to Law 13.2 regarding free kicks.

“The ball must be stationary and the shooter must not touch the ball again until it has been touched by another player.”

If that had been the case, the free kick would have had to be retaken anyway.

Reason 3: How much delay has Rice really caused?

Think of Pedro’s welly in the first half. Getting the ball back to where it was needed to restart play would have taken a while. Before this incident? The ball had barely moved a metre when Veltman tried to grab it.

It was a close call, Veltman could have stuck a boot forward and rolled it back to where the original foul occurred if he had wanted to. Compared to a goalie diving for a ball and staying on it for 15 seconds, it was hardly a punishable offense.

Reason 4: Webb said not to overdo it…

Read what referee director Howard Webb said on Microphone up Last season’s referees should not exaggerate

“(Michael Oliver) doesn’t want to have a negative impact on the game by overreacting to something,” he said. “Sometimes players get a yellow card, and then there’s pressure to show another one from the players on the pitch.”

You can decide for yourself whether Kavanagh could have been more cautious before issuing a second yellow card. But you can also decide that overreaction is the right word for how things turned out…

Reason 5: Is Veltman even trying to resume the game?

We do not doubt Veltman’s motives, but it is possible that he knows very well that he is going to hit Rice instead of the ball when he tries to restart play. In that case, the Arsenal player has effectively been sent off for a kick.

The defender moves like a player trying to throw a long ball, but his team-mates are all in their own half and Brighton are certainly not in the sport of firing balls aimlessly.

With that in mind, was Veltman’s demonstrative action merely intended to draw Kavanagh’s attention to Rice’s kick? We can’t say, so we’ll leave it to a man who has enforced the rule for more than a few Premier League games, Mike Dean.

“The defender has been very, very smart,” he said Football Saturday“He knows what’s going to happen.”

Veltman should have known what was going to happen, but you can understand why Rice, who has never received a red card in his career before, didn’t expect to get his instructions for such a minor incident.