Ian Wright has criticized Thomas Partey for his lack of urgency in tracking back during the build-up to Brighton’s equalizer against Arsenal on Saturday.
Arsenal dropped points for the first time this season in their home match against Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton, who remain unbeaten at the start of the campaign.
Kai Havertz gave the Gunners the lead, continuing his impressive form as a striker, before João Pedro equalized in the 58th minute.
The game changed dramatically when Declan Rice was sent off just four minutes into the second half.
Despite Arsenal’s strong performance, their advantage was nullified once they were reduced to 10 men.
Mikel Arteta opted for a more defensive approach to avoid defeat, which ultimately succeeded.
While Rice’s red card will likely dominate the headlines, former Arsenal striker Wright has specifically criticized Partey’s role in Brighton’s goal.
Pedro was allowed to move into the box uncontested and score from Yankuba Minteh’s rebound.
Wright has taken issue with Partey’s lack of urgency, describing it as “jogging back.”
“When you look at the play, you look at Thomas Partey…he’s literally run past him,” the Gunners legend said.
“Thomas Partey has to recognise in that instant he has to go all the way with Pedro and at least make a challenge.
“Pedro blasts past him and he’s just kind of jogging back.
“Those are the things that when you look back at that you’ll say well that could have been avoided.
“Maybe more pressure could’ve been put on Lewis Dunk cut that angle off and I think Partey’s got to cover Pedro.”
Arteta expressed his astonishment at Rice’s red card, pointing out that Brighton players committed similar offenses without consequence.
Rice was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away to prevent Brighton from restarting play.
“I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be,” the Spaniard said.
“In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens.
“Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball.
“By law, he can make that call, but then by law he needs to make the next call, which is red card so we play 10 vs 10.
“This is what amazed me.
“At this level it’s amazing.”
Declan Rice has meanwhile apologised to his teammates and the supporters after picking up the first red card of his career.
“I was shocked, I think you could see in my face I was shocked,” he said.
“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.
“But the second half one, especially with it being in the corner flag, they can’t really progress anywhere from there.
“It was tough, it was harsh, but it’s one of those things.
“I have to move on from it, I will be better for it and I can only praise the players for digging deep for me, and the manager for pushing everyone, and the fans as well who were unbelievable again this afternoon.
“That’s how I see it.”
The England international added: “I think from my behalf, that’s my first sending off in my career, so I just wanted to apologise obviously to my teammates, which I’ve done, and to the fans.
“When you get sent off, it’s never nice, you get a sense of guilt over you, and I was lucky today that my teammates really helped me out and we didn’t lose the game.
“I’ll learn from it, I really appreciate the fans’ support as always – it’s not in my nature really to get red cards, so I’ll learn from it, I’ll see where I can be better, and I’ll be back for sure.
“I’m sure this group of players, me and everyone else, we’re only going to strive towards one thing and that’s to be successful.
“We’ll keep going, I know it’s tough, it’s tough for me as well but we’ll be back stronger, and we know we’ve got a tough set of fixtures when we are back from the internationals, we’ll be ready.
“Stick behind us, your incredible support is what we need.
Read more: How Manchester United confirmed Jadon Sancho transfer to Chelsea
Alvin Ayman completes transfer from Wolves to Liverpool
Juventus announce actual transfer fee and Liverpool’s payment plan for Federico Chiesa
