Recently, Arsenal drew against Brighton Hove-Albion in the Premier League, where the Gunners were down to ten men. The match referee, Chris Kavanagh, took a decision to send Declan Rice off. While these things were happening at the Emirates, the Arsenal fans became unstable and anxious.
Within the first 30 minutes bof the game, Arsenal lead by a goal to nil. After the red card incident, Brighton gained control of the game. It wasn’t long before they equalised. This was another reason for the fans’ anxiousness. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was also raging seen from the touchline. At first, Declan Rice was shocked with this decision, but he had to accept his fate.
This season, Arsenal look pretty determined to finally win the English Premier League, following back-to-back defeats to City in title race. That is why they don’t want to lose points at any cost, starting right from the beginning of the season.
On the other hand, Manchester City are back to their old form, with Erling Haland scoring goals after goals. The Norwegian already has 7 goals in the Prem, having played just 3 games. Liverpool are also looking like title contenders after winning their first 3 games in tremendous fashion.
Therefore a draw could became a crucial factor in Arsenal’s Premier League campaign. For all these reasons, there was a shroud of dissatisfaction at the Emirates.
After the match, Ian Wright slammed the fans because he thinks that Mikel Arteta has managed to get one point out of this match. The Arsenal legend believes that it is a big thing when a team is playing with ten men.
Ian Wright’s reaction to the Arsenal fans
Obviously, every Arsenal fan was unhappy that their team lost 2 points while playing at home, but they somehow managed to pick up a point against a dangerous team like Brighton & Hove Albion. According to Mirror, the legendary forward, Ian Wright, believes that the fans should be ‘happy’ with this result.
Declan Rice apologized to the fans and his teammates. He is grateful to his teammates because they prevented all the attacking waves from Fabian Hürzeler’s side. Rice is relieved because his blunder didn’t affect the team as much.
What did really happen?
In the first half, Arsenal midfielder, Thomas Partey, made a mistake in the midfield, and the opposition players were trying to capitalise that opportunity to create a goalscoring chance. So, Declan Rice made a sliding tackle to recover a fifty-fifty ball and ended up getting his first yellow card.
After that incident, Rice got a second yellow card because of his inappropriate behavior, which is considered as a bizzare incident. Brighton defender, Joel Veltman, was going to take a free-kick from their own half and Declan Rice appeared to have moved the ball. So, the defender missed the ball and unknowingly kicked Declan’s leg.
From outside of the pitch, the fans might have visualized this incident as if it was a foul on Declan Rice. But the linesman saw what exactly happened before the free kick. Many fans and expert argued that this might have been a normal foul, but the referee didn’t overturn his decision because the Arsenal midfielder was trying to stop a set piece before it was being taken.
Comparatively, this decision was far more logical than the yellow card of Cole Palmer. In the game against Crystal Palace, Palmer kicked the ball against a sign board out of frustration, which happened outside of the pitch. He didn’t interrupt the game because the ball was out of play.
Despite losing a player, Arsenal didn’t change their identity. The Gunners played with courage and aggression. Both Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka were producing goal-scoring chances in attacking transitions. The fans should be proud of this performance.
Brighton were trying to penetrate the Arsenal backline with players like Baleba, Joao Pedro, and Mitoma. On the other hand, William Saliba, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Riccardo Calafiori defended these attacking waves with precision and decisiveness. This performance proves that Arsenal have one of the best defences in the entire Premier League right now.
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