The referees must handle games with common sense

 By 1970s Gooner

The debate on the red card given to Rice is on-going. All the journalists try to keep neutral by characterising it as harsh and of course blaming Rice for getting himself sent off.

But really they ignore the most obvious of facts:

1.The Brighton player deliberately kicked Rice pretending he was aiming for the ball.

2. The ball was obviously not in a stationary position as it was rolling quite nicely away from Rice. So Rice with his back to the kicker and seeing the ball rolling could not be trying to delay the kick because there was no kick to be taken in his mind.

3. The referee must be of a low standard, in terms of handling the game, if he could not understand what was going on. If he had he would have given both players a talking to and waived play on.

4. As he waved play on for Pedro's attempt to delay a throw in.

You only need to use your common sense.