Declan Rice thanked his Arsenal teammates for securing a ‘strong point’ in his absence after the midfielder was sent off early in the second half of this afternoon’s 1-1 draw with Brighton.
While the England international was deservedly booked for a late challenge on Joel Veltman in the closing stages of the first half, he was sent off in scarcely believable circumstances six minutes into the second half, receiving a second yellow for preventing play from restarting after a foul on the same opponent.
That referee Chris Kavanagh ignored the Dutchman kicking Rice in the process, not to mention the fact the Arsenal man’s infringement amounted to toe-poking a moving ball incensed the home support.
Despite not agreeing with the call, Rice took the opportunity to apologise to supporters for having handicapped the team.
Speaking to Arsenal.com, he reflected: “When we went 1-0 up, we had a good bit of momentum in the game, especially the first 15 minutes. To go 1-0 up was obviously really good and we wanted to build on that in the second half and obviously it was a decision which changed the flow of the game.
“It was tough, but the lads done amazingly well in the second half to dig it out, to fight with our fans. And in the end, that’s obviously a really good point against a team that are in really good form at the minute.”
Asked about the circumstances of his red card, Rice said: “I was shocked. I think you could see in my face I was shocked. He’s obviously gone over. I’ve not sprinted back in front of him and smashed the ball away. I’ve touched the ball with the outside of my foot.
“But look, this is the laws of the game. If you touch the ball even a little bit, obviously it’s a red card after my challenge in the first half, which I fully accept, a 50-50 that I didn’t win. But the second half one, especially with it being in the corner flag, they can’t really progress from anywhere there.
“It was tough, it was harsh. It’s one of them things, I have to move on from it, I’ll be better for it and I can only really praise the players to be honest with you for digging deep for me and the manager for pushing everyone and the fans as well who were unbelievable again this afternoon.”
As a result of today’s sending-off, Rice will have to sit out the North London derby when Arsenal return to action after the Intelull. It’s far from ideal but he’s keen not to dwell on it.
“I think from my behalf, I think that’s my first sending off in my career. So I just wanted to apologise to obviously my teammates, which I’ve done, and obviously the fans,” he said.
“You know, when you get sent off, it’s never nice. You have a sense of guilt over you. And I was lucky today that my teammates really helped me out and obviously that we didn’t lose the game. So I’ll learn from it.
“I really appreciate all the fan support as always. It’s not in my nature ever really to get red cards. So I’ll learn from it and I’ll see where I can be better and I’ll be back for sure.”
Arsenal made most of the running in the early stages but had to wait until the 38th minute to take the lead when Kai Havertz latched onto Bukayo Saka’s through ball to lob goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
It should have been the launchpad for a ninth consecutive win in the Premier League but Joao Pedro pegged the Gunners back nine minutes after Rice’s red card. The Brazilian pounced in the box to convert a rebound after David Raya had kept out Yankuba Minteh’s initial effort.
While Mikel Arteta’s resorted to playing on the break for much of the second half, both Havertz and Saka might have won the game with chances on the counter-attack. Watching from the dressing room Rice was impressed by the endeavour of his teammates.
“We could have won it as well, a couple of chances near the end,” he said.
“I was obviously watching the game from inside and, you know, I was up off my seat. And when them big two chances come, obviously you had David [Raya] as well who made another big save for us. But them two big chances, you know, on another day maybe they go in, but to even generate them chances from where we were, you know, on the edge of our box to then be at the other end of the pitch shows the desire of the boys.
“1-1 in the end obviously is not ideal because we want to win every game. That’s what we strive for. That’s what we believe we can do. But when you take the context out of it, you know, 10 men for 50 minutes, I think that’s a really, really strong point. We’ll keep battling and fighting.
“It’s only been three weeks since the start of the season. We’re going to keep going in the right direction, we’ve got a couple of weeks now after the internationals and we’ll be back.”
Absolutely nothing to apologise for Dec. You are not responsible for a rogue ref that has not consistently applied his interpretation of the game from minute one. A referee that seemingly let everything go then decided the most inconsequential thing deserved a red card.
The referee that comes from Manchester and supports one of the big clubs there…
Not just Manchester, Ashton. I studied there so I know the place well. City fan central.
He and similar should never be reffing our matches, given the potential closeness of the title race and the chance that it could decide who wins the PL.
Judging by what he displayed today he shouldn’t be reffing anything ever again. Useless incompetent bent cunt of an excuse for a human being.
Same bent cunt Costco’s two points with a ludicrous penalty decision against us at The Bridge last season. Even JT admitted he was wrong and shite…
Apologies for using JT to back up my point…
And with further potential consequences for our title race with Rice missing from the North London derby..
In fairness to PGMOL- they can’t give us a non Mancunian ref because there aren’t any. 21 refs in the PL pot. Two from Birmingham area, one south of London and all the others NW and Yorkshire. All white and middle aged. So best case we get 3 non Mancs on a match day to cover ref, linesman and VAR..
Seriously are all PL refs still white? What excuse is there for that? I was thinking they should be criticised for the xenophobia indicated by not having a single non English ref (did anyone think maybe *that* might solve the local bias problem?) but never occured to me there’s never even been a single black or brown ref? That’s some proper Nigel Farage shit.
Unfortunately it is true. They have second tier refs ( do Championship games). One ( black) got to ref Luton v Sheffield on Boxing Day last year (26th Dec 2023). That was the first game officiated in the premier league in the last 15 years!
By a non white ref that is to clarify.
who’s downvoting you on that, christ
Isn’t Oliver from Newcastle?
He supports Newcastle. Don’t know if he’s from there.
I saw more complaints on social media and thought pieces in the press post/pre-season about the ‘worrying’ lack of Northern teams in the PL than the complete lack of regional diversity in the pool of referees used. We have more Australian refs (who are Liverpool fans) than ones from London.
I worry more about Partey presence for the NLD. He is carelessness will make us sweat and moreover he doesn’t or can’t track back to help defenders. Who else do we have? Jorginho?
Corruption is the first word to come to mind. Not the first decision that is dubious this season. The clear penalty appeal against Saka on the opening day compare to the very light penalty given to Man Shitty. Is it still Web at the helm?
Sorry but he is right to apologise. Yes the ref was a total prat but by the laws of the game Rice gave him opportunity to act like a prat. On a yellow card already he should know better. It’s no good arguing about consistency, as it will never happen. He was unlucky but he was at fault.
No he didn’t because the ball was rolling. He did not delay play in any way. Also FIFAs rule book advises every ref to govern in the spirit of the game at all times not blindly stick to laws. If it was a case of laws then consistency has to be applied (it’s mandatory to apply them consistently if you’re reffing that way not optional as it’s simply not fair / free from bias to hold each team to different standards.) if the ref booked Joao Pedro in the first half, booked their left back for the tackles on Saka… Read more »
The ball rolling has nothing to do with what Declan did. It they had kicked it into Declan with it rolling, then, yes, Declan would have been fine, but he kicked it. He knows he did it, he knows it was stupid, and us acting like we’re the victims here makes us all look pathetic. Refs are hardly ever consistent, so let’s just disabuse ourselves of that from the start.
Declan knows.
Veltman kicked the ball towards Rice, before his so called attempt to take a quick free-kick to no-one.
Rice didn’t move his position, veltman had one intention, to kick and harm rice and try to get him a yellow. Rice doesn’t kick it away, he nudges a rolling ball it 1m – that shit happens EVERY foul.
Sorry but if you want to go down the letter of the law route here it is. 1) Veltman kicks a static ball onto Rice after the ref whistled for an infringement. According to the letter of the law that means in that instant he took the free kick when he kicked it onto Rice 2) Rice kicks an in play ball. Every footballer in history who has kicked a ball in play is simply doing their job. Kicking the ball. 3) Veltman assaulted Rice with no intent to play the ball. So according to the letter of the law?… Read more »
I agree with most of what you say but referees are inconsistent even within games. Rice gave him the opportunity to make a very petty decision. George below is right, we should not be acting as the victim here. Also had we taken our chances in the first half we would still have won.
This just excuses away the corruption. I get it, it’s hard to believe, but things at the highest level just cannot be this bad consistently, and not only that but biased in favour of the oil backed teams. I mean how can the world’s best football League be only white guys and like 80% from the NW Liverpool/Manchester area in this modern day and age? Corruption that’s how.
FIFA’s rulebook?? Ahhahhaa..thats like the u.n charter george dubya used as toilet paper while organising the shock and awe fiesta in eyerack… rules?? This is ingerland we have our own .. fanks you very much…
What a load of dross- are you just trolling or did you not see the incident? Rice was walking away the ball was kicked at him. While still rolling he nudged it to the right and then got booted for his troubles. If anything a straight red for their player for the deliberate kick from behind on Rice. Not to mention the ref had made it clear he did not see kicking the ball away as a bookable offence having let Brighton do so on no less than four occasions in the first half- most notably Pedros boot from the… Read more »
Watched it and not trolling.
Just don’t need to view it through Arsenal tinted glasses. If Rice didn’t nudge that ball away, he stays on.
Look if Rice wasn’t on a yellow I might (although when Pedro kicked the ball away I was glad he wasn’t booked) accept this narrow interpretation of the rules. But to send someone off and change the game for that? Just petty. A little grown up judgement is called for
You have a point, Kevin. But if the referee was so keen on sticking to the rules then he had to send Veltman off too. The Brighton player assaulted Rice and should have gone for it. The ball was not in play when he made his “tackle” on Rice. It was a violent attack and merited a red card.
The game should have continued as 10 v 10.
No question Veltman got away with it.
He can’t believe he got away with it. Post match interview on motd- it’s vague “I think” or “would have to see a replay” .. but he’s unable to say “I was only trying to quickly boot the free kick into the arsenal box but to my surprise rice was there instead of the ball” because he knows it s bs and doesn’t know how it looks on video. (Well good move, it looks like you’re kicking rice and nothing else)
Off topic, but we mentioned earlier this week how Trossard seems to stink the place out when given a start. And that was the case again today.
He might as well just accept it as his skill at this point. Maybe he is great at studying the game from the bench to spot opponent’s weaknesses. So by the time he comes in he sets about to exploit them? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If only he could worry less about starting games…
What a horrible expression to criticise one of the players of the team you support.
Do you know what criticism is/looks like?
Yes Martin clearly does know as he called you out on doing just that. Loving your support of our team though Henkamp. Classy. Slagging off a player who’s been an excellent member of our squad since signing. Hardly worthy of criticism today.
Agree. He’s better coming on as sub when Nelli has knackered their RB
Am not sure about that assessment. Hello scarcely have the ball passed to him but I recall him at least making one or two attempts on goal in the first half. I clearly remember a chance that the goal keeper saved and some passes into the box.
I think we should explore chances of quick transitions during play as opposed to our often ponderous and laborious control football.
When he acted the way he did last week he basically said “Arteta you have to play me. Nelli isn’t in my league.” Arteta was right to start him today – and his performances have said that. But when you act like that – as he did at Brighton and for Belgium – you have to back it up. He didn’t. I don’t know that it’s enough to say he can ever start. But to suggest that you are a bad fan because you are highlighting that trossards ego wrote a cheque that his performance couldn’t cash is the height… Read more »
There was a match towards the end of last season where he started and had a goal and an assist, and I think it might have been the first time he scored not from the bench? One of the first times anyway. I’m sure Arteta will have been telling him the same thing – if you want to start you need to show me you produce when you start. That said it’s not like Martinelli’s been doing better as a starter, so Tross will probably get another chance. One of them needs to stake a claim, or hopefully both will… Read more »
Or Stirling will become a problem for both of them! Tbf when Trossard comes on he seems too good to be a sub. But when Martinelli doesn’t start I miss his pace and workrate.
Also, Trossard created a great chance for Odegaard and Odegaard should have scored and maybe the result would have been very different.
Dude scored 12 goals starting and 5 as a sub last season. Stop creating something out of nothing.
Off topic, but I have to make a point about today’s game and its relevance to the transfer window that has just shut. We had more than enough chances to win the game today comfortably. Odegaard, Havertz and Saka all missed straightforward opportunities to score. Had we taken those chances then the sending off would have been irrelevant. And that’s why we needed to sign a quality striker last week. Just like last season, our weakness is the lack of a clinical finisher. This cost us the title back then and it will probably cost us the title this season… Read more »
Arteta did try to sign Sesko, though. Didn’t he?
That was never going to happen.
To emphasise my point I forgot to mention that Haarland got a hat trick today: he’s the difference between City and us.
Haaland is a cheat code. He scores hat tricks like it’s five aside on a Sunday afternoon. There is no one out there who we can buy who can hold a candle to him. City already cruising to another title while everyone looks on with apathy.
He’s one of the differences. There are 115 others though.
where is the haaland we could have signed?
Yes he did. Then gave up for 3 months and scrambled to sign Sterling in the last 3 hours. Found time to sign 5 goalies and a 6th left back though.
Yep, I feel exactly the same, we needed a goal scorer.
I mentioned in another article the same things you mention here and I got buried in negatives, I guess it’s easier to blame the ref rather than accept our own mistakes.
💯 I’ll add one more fats- expecting to beat city by signing city rejects will never win us anything.
I don’t buy it. All three of the players you name, plus Trossard, are as “clinical” as anyone in the league. Watch match of the day – amazing players miss big chances all the time. Luckily for vs Villa. Otherwise matches would end up 8 – 11 every week. What is true is that we don’t have an out and out no.9 at the club now Eddie has left. But it isn’t like the ball is getting put into those areas and no-ones there. Arteta doesn’t build his team to rely on a Vardy or Haaland. We score loads of… Read more »
Every “clinical finisher” misses “straightforward opportunities to score.” Henry missed lots. Yesterday, early in a scoreless match where West Ham looked threatening, a completely unmarked Erling Haaland headed wide of an open net. It was worse than anything I have seen from Havertz since he joined Arsenal. But he had a few more chances, though none quite so easy, and took three of them.
Let’s have a little wager: I bet you that Haarland scores more goals than Havertz this season.
I bet you Saka, Martinelli, Trossard, Odegaard, etc all score more goals than everyone at city who isn’t haaland. There isn’t another haaland in the world available for any money so arsenal have to spread the goals out to compete. It’s not that hard to understand fats.
It’s ok Deccie. Now you just have to learn from your mistake and win the rest of the games
The only mistake Dec made was forgetting he was playing for the Arsenal- the only side in the EPL who are refereed to the letter of the law and beyond. 250 odd games as a ball winner for a mid table team and no red cards. Welcome to Arsenal Dec.
I thought it was because our midfielders were “for’ners” and signing England International(r) Declan Rice would solve our “problem” with referees, but nah–it IS the shirt.*
*It could well be both.
Chin up. These things happen especially when you are competing against oil money.
Expect holiday pics of Kavanagh feet up by a pool in Dubai. Paid for by some oil tyrant for protecting Man City’s title this season.
He looks a bit shell shocked, as well he may. Playing for Arsenal is different, a lot of dodgy decisions and biased referees to deal with. I’m sure it’s a huge learning curve for all our new players too. PGMOL cheats hate it when we threaten their paymasters.
Two tier refereeing
The irony being that the PM is a Gooner
While it’s appreciated in general this is not an apology situation – that’s for when you grab someone around the throat, not benignly kick away a moving ball that was literally kicked at you.
Havertz, Saka and Odegaard all had great opportunities to score, made contact, were on target. They could just as easily apologise but let’s not get out of hand.
Chin up Declan, no apology necessary. I think we fans and the team can hold our heads up high. ’24/’25 was a really strong campaign, we stayed with Manchester City and fought hard with them all the way until the third match of the season before just fading away there. That is a real achievement against the winning machine that is City.
We’ve did well this season. Now we can gear up for ’25/26 and make another run at them!!
COYG!!!
Weird comment
I am just surprise VAR team does not alert the ref on Veltman kicking. What are they there for?
They are there for several reasons. One of them to make sure VAR itself fails.
Three games in and the Anti-Arsenal (Pro-City)corruption from the Premier League is in full swing. ’Twas ever thus…. We’ll bounce back from this, but I can’t help feeling that these two dropped points that we were blatantly denied (if it stays 11 v 11, we win this game, end of) may well come back to bite us next May. Let’s hope not. Other than that, the boys dug in well to secure something from the game. But the fact remains folks, that our beautiful game is rife with corruption. Brown paper bags, postmarked Manchester, yet again. When those cunts finally… Read more »
Chez not Chaise.
My French is as rotten as an Anelka sibling Agent.
The Spuds have just lost to Newcastle. Yesterday’s draw just got a little easier to take.
Cheer up Boys and Girls!
🤣👍🍺🍺
I bet it’s already decided, charge them and then have it fully planned for an arbitration/appeal to overturn it. The UK is basically involved in this corruption because their biggest oil partner is Dubai and here we are, literally the rulers of Dubai owning the most successful team in the last decade. If any legit penalty happens that jeopardises British oil trade… And that same group basically owns the press because they are Murdoch’s (and others’) biggest advertisers.
Side issue: should Mikel have taken sub decision more quickly to cover loss of Rice? 10 minutes but Brighton scored in 9th of those. Partey was already looking weak and slow in defence.
TP lost his runner there for the goal. Just stops going with him, has an uncontested tap in. That’s not going to be overlooked by Arteta.
Partey was never the fastest in defence. His strength is in his passing, although he did turn over possession rather unnecessarily a few times yesterday.
Still, with Rice out at the Toilet Bowl, I think we’ll only be too glad of Jorginho and Partey’s big game experience; we’re going to need it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they both have brilliant games rather than stinkers.
Could also be a great debut for our latest acquisition from the Chavs. Wouldn’t it be great if he scored? Debut goal for Arsenal against Spurs!
It seems the referees have to test every new rule when arsenal is playing Tomiyasu Martinelli and now Rice.
It helps to publicise the new rules..
*Opens thread*
*Reads comments*
*Closes laptop*
See y’all in 2 weeks
Can Arsenal appeal the sending off on the basis that the ball was well away from the foul and/or the ball was in motion so not legitimate to take it anyway?,
although knowing that shower of c***s they would probably find a way to increase the punishment.
Can’t appeal a second yellow card,even when it results in a red. Another stupid rule. Arsenal should be putting a file of all this shit together though, and complaining to the sweet FA, it’s all as dodgy as fuck.
l vaguely remember an approach to the FA a few years ago when AW was in charge, it only seems to have encouraged them in their efforts to sabotage fair play.
This is not an opinion but facts. If this rule was applied to every similar situation a lot of games would have like 10 red cards before halftime.