Referee Chris Kavanagh had “no alternative” but to send off Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice during the match against Brighton, according to the Premier League’s key Match Incidents panel.
Arsenal will be missing the influential England player after his controversial red card in the game against Brighton two weeks ago.
Having already received a yellow card, Rice was shown a second yellow and subsequently sent off for obstructing Joel Veltman from taking a quick free kick.
Although Rice barely touched the ball, Kavanagh judged that the action was intentional interference, leading to the dismissal.
The panel has now unanimously backed the decision & wrote: ‘Rice knows what he’s doing – it’s a gentle touch, but once the referee sees it he has no choice.’
Arsenal will be without the midfielder for Sunday’s key north London derby against Tottenham, a suspension which only served to rub salt into Mikel Arteta’s wounds.
‘I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be,’ said Arteta in his post-match press conference.
‘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.
‘By law, he [the referee] can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is red card so we play 10 vs 10. This is what amazed me. At this level it’s amazing.’
An injury to Mikel Merino had already limited Arteta’s options and news of Odegaard’s setback, sustained while playing for Norway, represents another major blow ahead of a daunting seven days.
Asked for a prognosis on Odegaard’s injury, Norway’s team doctor said: ‘Martin is doing quite well now. He got a small ankle sprain. We will see throughout the evening and tomorrow what happens next and what we will do about it.
‘Ankle sprains are difficult to deal with straight away, so we almost have to see how things go forward
‘We will examine him when we are back at the hotel. Maybe we use ultrasound to look at it. If we are unsure, there will be an MRI tomorrow.’
