Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was frustrated with the officials after watching his side draw 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates Stadium, having played the majority of the second half with 10 men. (More Sports News)
“It’s inconsistency and it's in an area where it’s not critical. You made that call and you have to give a red card" Mikel Arteta said
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was frustrated with the officials after watching his side draw 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates Stadium, having played the majority of the second half with 10 men. (More Sports News)
Declan Rice waꦓs sent off for a second bookable offence after 49 minutes for delaying the restart from a Brighton free-kick, leaving Arteta to question the consistency of the referee's decision-making.
“If that happens throughout the game in a consistent way that’s fine,” he told TNT Sports inꦕ a po♌st-match interview.
“But it didn’t happen. In the first half, there were a number 🦋of occasions where they kicked the ball a꧙way and nothing happened.
“It’s inconsistency and it's in an area 💜where it’s not critical. You made that c♚all and you have to give a red card.
“If we have to play with 10, they have toꦺ pla🦂y with 10 as well.”
Despite his annoyance a🐽t the red card, Arteta was a꧃ble to find positives in the performance of his team.
Arsenal went 1-0 up after 38 minutes through Kai Havertz’s se♍cond goal of the season, before conceding a second-half equaliser following Rice’s dismissal.
“We star𓆏ted the game really good, created three or four big chances,” he said.
“We started the second half really good, had some good mom👍ents and momentum and obviously that decision 🉐changes the game completely.
“It w﷽as unbelievable the way the team reacted [after the goal] with 10 men, playing 48 minutes, we should have won the game.”
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler, meanwh𝓀ile, had a different opinion to his counterpart.
꧂“It was a red card, he shoots the ball away. He was wasting time,” said Hurzeler in his post-match press conference.
“If Arsenal 💎think otherwise, there are now two opinions.”
When asked about a similar incident in ꧃which Joao Pedro seemed to avoid punishment for kicking the ball away, Hurzeler suggested the two events were not like-for-like.
“You can’t compare the two situations,” he said.
“In football, two situations are never the same. I was booked because I was complaining about the tackle against Joel [Veltman] in the first half. We can accept it’s in the Premier League, it’s a yellow card, but I think no one can complain if the referee giv༒es the red card.”