The chief refereeing officer, Howard Webb has revealed the mistake referee Chris Kavanagh made before Declan Rice’s red card in Arsenal’s Premier clash draw with Brighton last month.
Recall that Arsenal were left furious after Rice was given a second yellow card for kicking the ball away in their Premier League 1-1 draw against Brighton at the Emirates Stadium on August 31.
But shortly before Rice was sent off, Brighton forward, Joao Pedro escaped punishment after he delayed Arsenal’s ability to restart play by kicking the ball away.
And Webb believes Kavanagh should have also given Pedro a yellow card before Rice’s red card.
Asked about the incident, Webb said as quoted by Metro UK: “He [Pedro] wasn’t [booked], he should have been.
“It’s a different type of scenario, it sits in the same kind of booking around delaying the restart. Of course, he should have been cautioned here.
“The officials on the field gave him too much benefit of the doubt, feeling that the actions were not really impactful because they felt that the Arsenal players were not ready to take that throw-in, they were a little bit distance away from the ball, and Veltman [with Rice] was right there.”
He added, “I think when we look at this it is quite clear that the actions of Pedro do have an impact, they do delay Arsenal’s ability to restart and, yes, that should have been a yellow card.”