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.”
