BRIGHTON defender Joel Veltman has admitted he felt Declan Rice’s sending off was “quite harsh” and revealed he was “amazed” by the Arsenal man’s reaction.
England midfielder Rice, 25, was dismissed with the Gunners leading 1-0 against the Seagulls at the Emirates last month.
He was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away as Veltman attempted to take a quick free-kick.
The Dutch right-back subsequently missed the ball and took out the Arsenal man, but referee Chris Kavanagh spotted Rice’s discrete gamesmanship and sent him packing.
Arsenal went on to draw the game 1-1 as Joao Pedro levelled for the visitors.
The Premier League’s “Key Match Incident” team reviewed the red and deemed the decision to be correct.
Yet that has not stopped Veltman from insisting the punishment may have been too severe.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “For me, it goes really far, with like comments on social media.
“We have a new game day coming up, so I don’t want to say a lot about it.
“The only thing I can say is that I didn’t want to kick him. It’s just he kicked it away, I kicked him.
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“I find it quite harsh as well. If you see my reaction, you can look back, I was not going to the referee to get him a second yellow, I was going to him ‘Why did you kick it? I’m sorry I kicked you’.”
Veltman also praised Rice for his comments after the game in which he admitted the laws of the game dictate he had to be sent off.
Veltman added: “I think he gave an amazing comment. I think that’s what personally surprised me about him, how he commented in the media after.
“He said like ‘I don’t need to kick it, I need to know better’. That’s an amazing personality, I think, from him.”
Rice, who is now suspended for this Sunday’s North London derby, told the club website: “I was shocked, I think you could see in my face I was shocked.
“He’s obviously gone over… I’ve not sprinted back in front of him and smashed the ball away.
“I’ve touched the ball with the outside of my foot. But look, this is the laws of the game.
“If you touch ball away, even a little bit, obviously it’s a red card after my challenge in the first half which I fully accept was a 50-50 that I didn’t win.”
