Rice was handed his second yellow in the second half when Arsenal were 1-0 up, given Chris Kavanagh deemed that the midfielder had tried to kick the ball away to hold up play.
The England international was beyond shocked when he saw red for the first time in his career, and he will now miss the north London derby once club football returns.
And given Mikel Arteta will also be missing Mikel Merino because of injury, the Arsenal manager certainly has a tough selection call to make for the upcoming trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
Of course, Arsenal can’t appeal Rice’s red card given it was the result of two yellows, and not a straight red.
Micah Richards says Declan Rice red card is ‘worst decision’ he’s ever seen
Speaking on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast, Rice’s red dominated a lot of the chat between Micah Richards, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker.
The trio all agreed that it shouldn’t have been a sending off, however Shearer did play devil’s advocate to an extent, and Richards had no time for it in response.
Declan Rice of Arsenal interacts with match referee Chris Kavanagh after being shown a second yellow card during the Premier League match between A...
Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Lineker initially said: “I just think it’s another sign that football’s kind of lost its mind a little bit for me to get a second yellow and red card for that.”
Shearer replied: “Yeah I totally get and understand the argument. Do we want to see it? No, not really.
“Is it the law? Yes. Were the players told about that in pre-season? They were sat down and warned, yes.
Lineker: “I saw Declan Rice said that he didn’t actually try and flick the ball away. It just kind of, it was just, I mean, he just barely touched it to be honest.”
Richards interjected: “No this is, honestly, I feel completely different to the way you guys feel, I think that was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.”
Lineker: “I’m not disagreeing with you Micah, I think it’s ridiculous.”
Richards: “Okay first point, [Joao] Pedro kicked the ball away, he kicked the ball away.”
Shearer: “Yeah but the ball was already off the pitch.”
Richards: “It doesn’t matter.”
Shearer: “It does because there’s a ball on the sideline, which doesn’t matter if you kick the ball, when the balls off the pitch, if you kick it into the top row of the stand, it doesn’t matter because there’s one five yards away.”
Raheem Sterling could make Arsenal debut away at Tottenham
The debate could rage on for hours, but either way it’s clear that there’s still so much inconsistency in officiating across the Premier League right now.
But the headline will still be that Arsenal are without Rice against Spurs, a situation that Arteta wouldn’t have been expecting.
And whilst Rice will be missing, Arsenal supporters could see Raheem Sterling in an Arsenal shirt for the first time against Tottenham, the kind of game a player of his experience can handle.
Although there’s a starting spot available, it would be something of a shock if Arteta reshuffled his team to start Sterling, who will need to be patient for his chances.
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