The Premier League's independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel has unanimously backed referee Chris Kavanagh's decision to send off Declan Rice in Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion on 31 August.
Rice had already received a booking when he clashed with Joël Veltman and committed a foul. When Veltman stepped forward to kick the ball, Rice kicked him out of the field and Kavanagh showed the Arsenal midfielder a second yellow card for delaying the restart.
The results, seen by ESPN, establish that “Rice knows what he's doing, it's a soft touch but once the referee sees it, he has no other choice.”
The KMI panel comprises five members, three former players and/or managers, plus one representative from the Premier League and one from the PGMOL. It was set up at the start of the 2022-23 season to provide an independent assessment of decision-making rather than relying on the views of the PGMOL or the clubs themselves. The aim of the ruling is to provide an independent assessment of all significant incidents in the match, but gives weight to the referee's decision in subjective situations, taking into account the laws of the game and the Premier League's interpretation.
There was “unanimous agreement” among the five members of the KMI panel “that Rice's actions were clear, deliberate and shocking. The referee therefore acted correctly in sending Rice off for a second time for delaying the restart.”
The panel also backed referee Jarred Gillett's decision not to show a second yellow card to Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes in the game against Chelsea on 1 September. Hughes had brought down Cole Palmer on the edge of the area but in a split 3–2 vote the panel said “it is a holding offence but it does not appear to be stopping a promising attack due to the Palace defender being positioned immediately in front of Palmer.”
There has been little real controversy in the Premier League so far this season, with only one VAR decision deemed incorrect: when Tim Robinson intervened to disallow Dango Ouattara's stoppage-time 'winning goal' for handling the ball in AFC Bournemouth's game against Newcastle United on 25 August.
While there were no other VAR errors, the panel ruled that there were two penalty situations that were incorrect on the field but did not meet the threshold of a clear and obvious error for an intervention: referee Tony Harrington should not have given West Ham United a penalty against Aston Villa, while Ipswich Town should have been awarded a penalty at Manchester City.
In 84 key match incidents analysed by VAR over the first three rounds, just nine votes out of a possible 420 said the video assistant made a mistake, with five of those coming in the unanimous judgement that Bournemouth's goal should have been allowed.
