The fallout from Declan Rice’s red card for Arsenal against Brighton continues to dominate the thoughts and words of supporters nearly a week after the incident.
The international break has not allowed much news to swallow up the story and in the days since, inconsistency in coverage from former referees and new comparable examples have only made worse the feeling surrounding the suspension.
Arsenal will return to action next week and travel to their bitter rivals Tottenham aiming to win three back-to-back away North London Derbies for the first time since 1988. Rice’s absence will be the main talking point in regard to how Mikel Arteta sets up his side, but the suspension scenario could be made even worse in the weeks to come.
Rice will return for the trip to Manchester City the following week which sandwiches a Champions League tie away at Atalanta in a tough gauntlet of games for the Gunners.
Rice’s two yellow cards against Brighton added to one he already received against Aston Villa.
This means he is currently sitting on three in three games. Premier League rules dictate that should a player accumulate five yellow cards in the first nineteen matches, they are then due a one-game suspension.
