Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has apologised to his team-mates and the club’s supporters for being sent off as they dropped points for the first time this season, at home to Brighton.
The England international, already on a yellow for a first half foul, was dismissed by referee Chris Kavanagh for ostensibly delaying Joel Veltman from taking a free-kick deep inside the Brighton half.
Many pundits and Arsenal fans felt Rice was harshly treated, pointing to the fact where teh ball was, that it was still moving at the time and the context of the match. Angry Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta did not directly dispute the decision, but called for Kavanagh to show consistency and also caution Brighton goalscorer Joao Pedro for also kicking the ball away earlier in the match.
Rice said afterwards: “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, look, this is the law of the game. If you touch the ball away, even a little bit, obviously it’s a red card, after my challenge in the first half (which I fully accept was 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 anywhere from there. It was tough, it was harsh, but it’s one of those things.
“I have to move on from it, I will be better for it and I can only praise the players for digging deep for me and the manager for pushing everyone and the fans as well who were unbelievable again this afternoon. That’s how I see it.”
Even worse for Arsenal is the fact Rice is now banned from playing in their next match after the international break, away to local rivals Tottenham where they won comfortably last season. With new signing Mikel Merino also ruled out wiht injury. Arteta has a huge hole to fill in midfield.
Rixe remained upbeat and added: “We’ll keep going, I know it’s tough, it’s tough for me as well but we’ll be back stronger, and we know we’ve got a tough set of fixtures when we are back from the internationals, we’ll be ready.”
Analysing the red card, he concluded: “That’s my first sending-off in my career, so I just wanted to apologise obviously to my team-mates, which I’ve done, and to the fans.
“When you get sent off, it’s never nice, you get a sense of guilt over you, and I was lucky my teammates really helped me out and we didn’t lose the game. I’ll learn from it, I really appreciate the fans’ support as always – it’s not in my nature really to get red cards, so I’ll learn from it, I’ll see where I can be better.
“I’ll be back for sure. I’m sure this group of players, me and everyone else, we’re only going to strive towards one thing and that’s to be successful.”
