Declan Rice avoids red card for wild kick on Brighton’s Malick Yalcouye in Arsenal defeat | OneFootball

Declan Rice avoided a red card for kicking out at Brighton’s Malick Yalcouye in the final seconds of his team’s heavy 3-0 defeat in the Premier League.

The England midfielder lashed out after being closed down by Yalcouye, swiping at his opponent’s legs after he had passed the ball towards the wing.

Yalcouye fell to the turf and appealed towards referee Darren England, who saw the incident and gave Rice a yellow card.

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Rice received a yellow card for the kick (Reuters)

But Rice could consider himself lucky that he escaped further punishment after incidents involving Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Aston Villa’s Joao Gomes this season.

Foden was sent off for kicking out at Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes last weekend, while Gomes received red following a VAR review for kicking Brighton’s Georginio Rutter.

Both of those incidents saw the offender kick up while lying with their back on the ground, while Rice’s kick came while he and Yalcouye were both running.

Yalcouye, a second-half substitute for Brighton, appeared to lean into Rice after the midfielder had passed the ball, leading to his trip on Yalcouye.

With Brighton leading 3-0 at the Amex, the match clock had ticked past the 96th minute when Rice lashed out after six minutes had been added on.

It is unclear whether the VAR checked the incident before referee England blew for full-time.

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Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season after seven straight wins (PA)

The result condemned Arsenal to their heaviest Premier League defeat in over three years and ended their winning start to the season.

Mikel Arteta’s side arrived on the south coast looking to equal an 123-year club record by winning their first eight matches of the new season but were handed a reality check as they suffered the first defeat of their title defence.

The visitors started slowly and were stunned by first-half goals from the in-form Pascal Gross and the teenage striker Charalampos Kostoulas. The hosts, who were celebrating their 125th anniversary, continued where they left off in the second half as Chema Andres rose to head in a corner before the hour-mark.

And Arteta said Arsenal could have no complaints and admitted they were second best throughout.

“I think they deserve to win the game. It started by us not doing the basics right for long periods, especially a lot of the first half. That set the tone of the game,” he told Radio 5 Live.

“We didn't win enough duels and that stretches you and gives you no option to dominate the game or the territory.

“On top of that when you regain that ball we were extremely poor, with the technical errors that we made and especially with the principles that we didn't apply against a team that wants to press you man to man, so that puts us constantly under pressure and we didn't get out of that in the way that we normally do.

“So a lot of things to learn, obviously, and to take. I'm very disappointed.”