Arsenal draws after Rice sees red against Brighton
Declan Rice was sent off for the first time in his Premier League career as Arsenal was pegged back by a buoyant Brighton and Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium, which moved briefly to the top of the Premier League after a 1-1 draw.
Kai Havertz's first-half strike was cancelled out by Joao Pedro, while the hosts played most of the second half with a player less after Declan Rice was dismissed for two yellow-card offences.
The Gunners broke the deadlock seven minutes before half-time when Bukayo Saka outmuscled Lewis Dunk before teeing up Havertz, who lifted the ball into the empty net over Bart Verbruggen.
However, Mikel Arteta's was were reduced to 10 men within four minutes of the restart, with Rice shown a second yellow card after he was deemed to have prevented the taking of a Brighton free-kick.
The Seagulls were level just nine minutes later when David Raya parried Yankuba Minteh's initial strike straight to Joao Pedro, who made no mistake from close range.
Fabian Hurzeler's side looked more likely to grab the game's decisive third goal as it dominated possession later on but, in the end was forced to settle for a share of the spoils.
A frustrated Arteta questioned the consistency of the referee's decision-making.
“If that happens throughout the game in a consistent way that’s fine,” he said in a post-match interview.
“But it didn’t happen. In the first half, there were a number of occasions where they kicked the ball away and nothing happened.
“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.
“If we have to play with 10, they have to play with 10 as well.”
Hurzeler, perhaps unsurprisingly, had a different opinion on Rice's red.
“It was a red card, he shoots the ball away. He was wasting time,” Hurzeler said 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 gives the red card.”
