Referee Chris Kavanagh had “no choice” but to send Declan Rice off against Brighton, an independent panel has ruled.
The Arsenal midfielder was shown a second yellow card in the match before the international break for rolling the ball away from Joel Veltman, who then kicked through Rice as he shaped to take a quick free-kick.
The Gunners played most of the second-half with ten men as they dropped two points in the 1-1 draw, with Mikel Arteta saying he was “amazed” at the decision.
It was the first red card of Rice’s career and means he is suspended for Arsenal’s north London derby against Tottenham this weekend.
While the decision has been viewed as a controversial one, the Key Match Incidents panel (KMI) unanimously backed Kavanagh’s decision, viewing Rice’s touch of the ball as “clear, deliberate and impactful".
It wrote: "Rice knows what he's doing - it's a gentle touch, but once the referee sees it he has no choice."
The KMI panel consists of three former players or coaches, one Premier League representative and one from the referees' body.
Of the 23 on-field incidents looked into from the third weekend of the Premier League of the season, only one was deemed to be incorrect.
That was the award of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s goal early in Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, which was then ruled out for offside by VAR.
There was some disagreement over the decision not to send Crystal Palace’s Will Hughes off against Chelsea.
The midfielder pulled Cole Palmer back when already on a yellow card, but only two of those on the panel believed Hughes was guility of “stopping a promising attack."
