Jurrien Timber limped out of Arsenal’s draw with Brighton (Picture: Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta allayed fears of injury for Jurrien Timber after the Arsenal defender limped out of the draw with Brighton on Saturday.
The Dutchman missed almost all of last season due to a serious knee problem and there were worries late in the 1-1 draw with the Seagulls at the Emirates as he was forced off.
However, there was good news from the Gunners boss in the post-match press conference as he confirmed Timber was just suffering with cramp.
It was bad enough for the versatile defender to be replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko, but he is not going to miss any football through injury.
Arteta was left fuming after the contest due to Declan Rice’s sending off for a second yellow card early in the second half.
The England midfielder kicked the ball away before a Brighton free-kick and then was heavily kicked by Joel Veltman as a result of the ball being moved.
Arteta felt the booking could have been reasonable, but only if the referee had booked Brighton’s Joao Pedro in the first half for blatantly kicking the ball away when it had gone out for an Arsenal throw-in.
Declan Rice could scarcely believe he received his first senior red card (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I was amazed,’ said Arteta of the red card for Rice. ‘In the first half when the opponents did that they didn’t get any booking. He makes the call by law in a non critical area of the pitch when the ball hit the heel when turning around, to make that decision. By law he can do it but be consistent. If that is the case they should have a man sent off and then it is 10 v 10.’
On his sides response to the red, he said: ‘Amazing, the team and the reaction of the crowd [after going a man down]. We created two big chances one v one and we should have won the game.’
Kai Havertz opened the scoring for the Gunners on 38 minutes after the home side dominated the early exchanges, but Rice’s red card changed everything.
Brighton took advantage of the situation and equalised through Pedro just before the hour mark and both sides had chances to win the game but neither could claim three points.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Arsenal news, exclusives and analysis
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.