Arsenal fans fuming after new footage of Declan Rice’s red card incident emerges

After being booked for a rash challenge in the first half, Rice was judged to have delayed the restart after a tangle with Brighton’s Joel Veltman. The Seagulls were awarded a freekick and the Arsenal man nudged the ball away as Veltman appeared to swing to take it, meaning - though it was Rice that ended up on the floor after Veltman’s foot connected with him - that it was he who was sent off.

Various aspects of the encounter left fans furious - João Pedro had kicked the ball down the pitch after it ran out of play in the first half but wasn’t punished, several people pointed out that the ball was rolling when Rice touched it so the freekick could not be taken anyway, and it was also argued that Veltman should have been punished for his kick on Rice.

Mikel Arteta said after the game that he was “amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens”.

"Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan [on the back of his leg], he turns around, he doesn't see the player coming and he touches the ball, Arteta added. “By law, he can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is a red card so we play 10vs10. This is what amazed me. At this level it's amazing."

The decision means that Rice faces a one-match suspension which rules him out of the north London derby, and this morning salt was rubbed in the Gunners’ wounds when new footage of the incident was released by Arsenal.

In the club’s ‘Access All Areas’ video montage of the match, a different angle of the moment is included - which some believe makes Veltman’s kick look deliberately targeted at Rice rather than the ball.

For his part, Rice has apologised to both his teammates and the fans for his first ever dismissal, saying: "When you get sent off, it’s never nice, you get a sense of guilt over you, and I was lucky today that my teammates really helped me out and we didn’t lose the game. I’ll learn from it."

He added: “If you touch (the) ball away, even a little bit, obviously it’s a red card after my challenge in the first half which I fully accept was a 50-50 that I didn’t win. But the second half one, especially with it being in the corner flag, they can't really progress anywhere from there. It was tough, it was harsh, but it's one of those things. I have to move on from it.”

TV pundits and experts have also weighed in on the incident. Former Premier League referee Mike Dean said on Sky Sports: “I mean, unfortunately for Declan he’s kicked the ball away as you said, but he hasn’t kicked it far, but they have been told before the season ‘Kick the ball away, delay any kind of restart, you will be cautioned’. He’s already on a yellow card. He’s got no choice but to send him off.”

Micah Richards, on the other hand, slammed what he called “one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.”

Arsenal will face rivals Tottenham Hotspur without Rice on September 15 after the international break. In the meantime, Rice features in Lee Carsley’s first England squad to take on the Republic of Ireland and Finland.