By the letter of the law, Declan Rice’s second yellow for Arsenal vs Brighton was correct. But here are five reasons why he was right to be “shocked” by his dismissal…
The England midfielder was given his marching orders by Chris Kavanagh four minutes after half-time for kicking the ball away and delaying the restart of play after he fouled Joel Veltman.
There is no question the Arsenal man touched the ball to take it away from Veltman as he made a movement to take the free-kick he had just been awarded, with the Brighton defender eventually catching Rice instead.
But watch the incident back a few times, and there are a few questions to be asked whether a yellow card, especially leading to a red, was the best form of punishment.
Reason 1: If Joao Pedro can do it…
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was left frustrated with the ‘inconsistency’ of the refereeing after Declan Rice was dismissed against Brighton.
Before half-time, Joao Pedro booted the ball away after Kavanagh’s whistle had gone, in an incident arguably worse than Rice’s given the relative length of delay from how far his kick travelled.
Unlike Rice, Pedro wasn’t penalised, or even spoken to, by Kavanagh. It’s not exactly the first incident of refereeing inconsistency in Premier League history, but why did Pedro get off scot-free while Rice was sent for an early bath?
Reason 2: The ball was moving when Rice touched it
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Declan Rice was sent off against Brighton after receiving a second yellow card for kicking the ball away, preventing Joel Veltman from taking a free-kick.
This one should kill the whole argument dead. Watch the video above of the incident which saw Rice sent off, and you’ll see the ball clearly moving before Rice nudges it away.
So even if Veltman had made contact with the ball, rather than Rice, and managed to take the quick free-kick, then if we’re doing everything by the letter of the law, then let me draw your attention to Law 13.2 regarding free-kicks.
“The ball must be stationary and the kicker must not touch the ball again until it has touched another player.”
With that being the case, the free-kick would have had to be taken again anyway.
Reason 3: How much did Rice really delay things?
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Sky Sports’ Gary Cotterill and Sam Blitz give their verdict after Declan Rice’s red card saw Arsenal drop points at home to Brighton.
Consider Pedro’s first-half welly. Getting the ball back to where it was needed to restart play would have taken a good little while. For this incident? The ball had barely moved a yard by the time Veltman attempted to take it.
It was so close, Veltman could have stuck a boot out and rolled it back to where the original offence occurred had he been so inclined. Compared to a goalkeeper diving on a ball and lying on it for 15 seconds, it was hardly a criminal offence.
Rice clearly kicks the ball away from Joel Veltman…
But even by the time Veltman makes contact with him, the ball has travelled only a couple of yards at most
Reason 4: Webb said not to overreact…
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PGMOL chief Howard Webb explains why Chelsea’s Malo Gusto was shown a red card after the VAR intervened following a tackle on Lucas Digne and Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic only saw a yellow card for a similar incident against Arsenal.
Have a little read of what referee chief Howard Webb said on Mic’d Up last season referees shouldn’t overreact
“[Michael Oliver] doesn’t want to have a negative impact on the game by overreacting to something,” he said. “Sometimes players will be on a yellow card, and there will be pressure to show another one from the players on the field.”
You can decide for yourself whether Kavanagh could have been more cautious before brandishing a second yellow. But you might decide overreaction is the right word for how things transpired…
While we’re at it, if the referee was feeling particularly upstanding about the laws that day, why wasn’t Mark Verbruggen cautioned for running over to him to insist Rice was shown a second yellow card?
Blackburn striker Makhtar Gueye might wonder the same thing, after he was given a second yellow for doing exactly that to Tony Harrington in their game with Burnley on Saturday afternon.
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Makhtar Gueye received a second booking for waving an imaginary card in the direction of referee Tony Harrington.
Reason 5: Is Veltman even trying to restart play?
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Mike Dean reacts to Declan Rice’s controversial sending off in Arsenal’s clash with Brighton.
Far be it from us to question Veltman’s motives, but there is a case that he knows very well he is going to make contact with Rice rather than the ball when he attempts to restart play, in which case the Arsenal man has effectively been sent off for getting kicked.
The defender’s movement is that of a player attempting a long ball – but all of his team-mates are well inside their own half and Brighton are certainly not in the sport of launching aimless balls downfield.
Joel Veltman makes as if to send the free-kick long – but there is no Brighton team-mate upfield to receive it
With that in mind, was Veltman’s demonstrative action just designed to draw Kavanagh’s attention to Rice’s kick? We couldn’t say, so we’ll defer to a man who’s run the rule over more than a few Premier League games, Mike Dean.
“The defender’s been very, very clever,” he told Soccer Saturday. “He knows what’s going to happen.”
Veltman might have known what was going to happen – but you can understand why Rice, who has never had a red card before in his career, didn’t expect to be given his marching orders over such a minor incident.
