Arsenal: Rice’s five-word comment to referee revealed amid ‘major’ red card ‘doubts’ – ‘silly mistakes’
A report revealed what Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said to Rob Jones when he complained about his refereeing of the 2-0 loss to AFC Bournemouth.
The Gunners suffered their first Premier League loss of the season on Saturday evening as they lost 2-0 at Bournemouth.
For the third time this season, Arsenal went down to ten men as William Saliba was dismissed after half an hour.
The Frenchman was initially booked for fouling Bournemouth forward Evanilson, but this was upgraded to a red card following a VAR review as he was adjudged to have denied his opponent a goalscoring opponent.
A former Premier League has revealed that he disagrees with this decision as he has ‘three major doubts’ about the red card.
Arsenal were far from their best in this game and were deservedly beaten. Late goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert took the match away from Mikel Arteta’s side.
The North London outfit have dropped points in three Premier League games this season and they finished each of these matches with ten men. Speaking post-match, Arteta appeared to accept the red card as he blamed “two big errors” for the defeat.
“Playing for 65 minutes with 10 men at this level is an impossible task,” Arteta said.
READ: Arsenal conspiracies powerless against mistake-ridden reality in defeat to Bournemouth
“It’s an accident waiting to happen not to get the points. I can’t fault the team for their effort, commitment, how intelligent they were to play in the way that we had to.
“There was a big moment at 0-0 when we had a big opening, a one-against-one situation with the keeper and we don’t manage to score.
“Football is a sport where errors are part of that. Tonight we made two big errors that have cost us the game unfortunately.”
Following the final whistle, Rice was spotted complaining to Jones and a report from The Metro has revealed ‘what he told the referee’. According to the report, he said: “Every week it’s the same”.
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Despite this, Rice later hit out at his Arsenal teammates for “making silly mistakes”.
“We’ve kicked ourselves in the foot three times in eight games and we got away with it at home to Brighton and away at Manchester City. Bournemouth kept probing and made it 2-0,” Rice said.
“I’m proud of the players for fighting, even with 10 men, but the naivety, we need to stop making mistakes because you want 11 players for 90 minutes and that’s what wins you football matches.
“With 10 men we showed a lot of character and personality to stay in the game. The big chance was Martinelli’s and the keeper read it and made a great save and one minute later, normally a routine we are so strong at, has done us.
“We can’t make silly mistakes. You need all your best players on the pitch at all times. The belief is so high and we will stick together. This is football, whatever happens the most important thing is that you stick together and stay in the right direction.”
