The Premier League have confirmed that Declan Rice was sent off against Brighton for ‘delaying a restart’ despite the Arsenal star being kicked.
The England international is now set to be banned for Arsenal’s match in two weeks against fierce rivals Tottenham after picking up two yellow cards. Rice was furious after his controversial red card, having been booted by Joel Veltman after slightly kicking the ball away.
Rice clearly felt that Veltman was lashing out having gotten tangled up with the Arsenal star and ending up on the floor just moments before. But to his shock, Rice was the one who was shown a yellow card by the referee, who had clearly deemed that Veltman was trying to take the free-kick.
According to the FA rules, kicking the ball away or delaying the restart is an automatic cautionable offence. Despite angry protests from Rice and his team-mates, the referee’s decision was backed up by VAR as the England star was forced to trudge off the pitch after being shown a red for the first time in his career.