Mikel Arteta fumes at Declan Rice red card as Arsenal boss calls out ref Chris Kavanagh

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta hit out at the lack of “consistency” from referee Chris Kavanagh after Declan Rice was shown a controversial red card during his side’s 1-1 draw with Brighton.

Rice was sent for an early bath after nudging the ball away while the visitors had a free-kick at the Emirates, shown a second yellow despite being hacked to the floor by Joel Veltman.

But Arsenal’s fury stemmed from an earlier incident when Brighton forward Joao Pedro ran the ball out of play near the touchline, before kicking the ball down the pitch to halt a quick throw-in, but the Brazilian was not punished.

When asked what he had been told by the Premier League over the Rice incident, Arteta informed TNT Sports: “None, like always. If it happens in the game in a consistent way that’s fine, but it didn’t happen, there were a number of occasions where they kicked the ball away and nothing happened.

“So it’s inconsistency, especially because as well it’s in an area where it’s not critical. On top of that you made that call, then you have to give a red card as well. If we had to play with 10, they had to play with 10 because it’s a red card for Veltman.”

Salt was rubbed into Arsenal’s wounds further as Rice will be suspended for the North London Derby against Tottenham after the international break. With Mikel Merino also likely to miss the match, as the new signing was spotted with his arm in a sling during the Brighton clash, Arteta will be forced into a reconfiguration of his midfield.

“I don’t know (about Rice missing the next match),” Arteta added. “We are thinking only of today and this game. It was unbelievable the way the team reacted. With 10 men, playing 48 or 49 minutes like this, we should have won the game.”

Bukayo Saka, who helped Arsenal take the lead when he played Kai Havertz through to lob Bart Verbruggen, joined his head coach in calling for more uniformity among the officials.

“We just want some consistency,” Saka told the BBC. “Joao Pedro booted the ball halfway across the pitch in the first half and got nothing for it. Dec got the slightest touch and was sent off.”

Pedro, who escaped a booking, equalised nine minutes after Arsenal went down to 10 men. Yankuba Minteh latched onto a stunning through ball from Lewis Dunk that sliced the home defence open, his shot was parried by David Raya but Pedro tapped home the rebound.

Arsenal had been in relative control of the match until Rice’s red card, but by the end of the 90 minutes were fortunate to leave the Emirates with a point as Brighton dominated the second half, perhaps undeserved according to Arteta and Saka.