Arsenal vs Brighton: view from the stands

A difficult watch on Saturday, as Arsenal dropped points against Brighton. This was a game which Arsenal dominated early on, but which turned on its head in the 49th minute, when Declan Rice was shown a second yellow card.

Pictured above: my view from the stands

I was sat on the centre line for the game and had a fairly good view of most of the key talking points. Given its significance, I will start with the topic most people have been debating – the red card for Declan Rice.

Rice red card

I have to say, when I first saw the incident, I wasn’t sure what had happened. From where I was sitting, it looked like Veltman had taken a deliberate swipe at Rice. I assumed, as I’m sure many others did, that the yellow card was going to be directed towards Veltman and I wouldn’t have been shocked to see a VAR review pop up on the screen. When I realised the yellow was for Rice, I was surprised. I figured Rice must have said something to the referee which had warranted the booking, but I couldn’t understand how Veltman had escaped without a yellow.

Having seen the replay after the game, my confusion turned to disbelief.

I understand that people will look at this incident in isolation and say that it is a yellow. Arguably, Rice delayed the restart of play by nudging the ball away and this is a cautionable offence under Law 12. I also accept that this is something which teams were told the referees would be clamping down on this season. However, given the short distance that Rice kicked the ball and the fact that the ball was rolling such that Veltman couldn’t have taken the free kick anyway, the amount of time that Rice’s touch would have delayed the restart by is minimal. It seems like the referee has taken a very strict interpretation of the rules in this instance.

However, there’s something I really can’t get my head around and that’s why Declan Rice has been cautioned in the context of the previous decisions made in the game.

There’s a reason that the referee was booed off at half time and that was due to a series of decisions which had incensed the Arsenal fans. There’s two decisions in particular which I want to pick out:

Firstly, and the one which has got a lot of media traction, the João Pedro incident in the first half. With the ball out of play for an Arsenal throw, Pedro smashed the ball down the pitch to delay the restart. Same principle, and much more blatant, but no reaction from the referee.

Secondly, there was an incident where Saka won a free kick on the edge of the Brighton penalty area after Hinselwood had clearly pulled him back to prevent a potential goal scoring opportunity. Another seemingly blatant yellow card not given.

There has to be some form of common sense for referees given the extensive number of cautionable offenses listed under Law 12. If there wasn’t, referees would be brandishing a card every two minutes. However, if the referee is being lenient on certain offenses, then the rule should be the same throughout the game and the same for both teams. It’s in this context that I really can’t understand why Chris Kavanagh has decided to send Rice off.

Rice aside, there is also a question here as to why Veltman was not booked or potentially sent off for the incident. The ball is moving when he goes to take the free kick. He can see Rice in front of him and knows he is going to follow through into Rice. The power with which he supposedly tries to strike the ball and the positioning of the other Brighton players at the time, make it clear that following through into Rice was Veltman’s main intention.

It’s not often that I am so shocked by a refereeing performance that I have to go home and Google which team they support, but this was one of those days. (Apparently his team is unknown, although he is from Manchester…)

Pictured above: Chris Kavanagh is escorted off the pitch to a chorus of boos

Anyway… that’s the salty Arsenal fan tears done with, on to the rest of the game.

Early Arsenal pressure

I thought Arsenal dominated the early stages of the game and Hinselwood struggled early on to deal with Saka. There were multiple times in the first 15 minutes when Saka found himself in space to receive the ball out wide and run at Hinselwood one on one, which created a number of openings. However, towards the end of the first half, it seemed that Mitoma doubled up a bit more and Hinselwood was then able to get a bit closer to Saka, preventing us from finding him so easily.

The half slowed down for a bit before Saka latched on to a defensive mix up to find Havertz who opened up the scoring. It was a good finish from Havertz, albeit it’s one I’d expect him to be putting away.

After the red card

I was surprised by how much Arsenal fell apart after the red card. It seemed like Brighton sensed blood and Arsenal were reeling in shock after the decision. The goal Brighton scored had a feeling of inevitability about it as Arsenal looked disorganised.

Arsenal did tighten up however and looked a lot more solid once they settled down and switched to a back 5 with Calafiori coming on. We created a couple of really good chances, which, with a man down against this Brighton side, is no easy feat. The first of those chances was a tough finish for Havertz, but one which I wonder, had that been Haaland, would it have been in the back of the net. The Saka chance was another near miss, although there was not much more he could have done on the stretch.

Title Race: point won/lost?

Overall, I think the Arsenal players will be pleased with the result in the circumstances. However, they may wonder if they could have been more clinical with the chances they were creating early on and they may also question the reaction once they went down to 10 men. There’s a question for Arteta as well, as to whether he should have reacted earlier by switching to a back 5 to protect the lead.

In the context of the title race, it’s very early on, but this still feels like first blood to Man City (and potentially Liverpool). We have a couple of very tough fixtures coming up away to Tottenham and Man City (with the Carabao cup and a trip to Atalanta in the Champions League in the same two weeks). Even at this early stage, I get the sense that the next month could be pivotal to our season.