Arsenal fans have unearthed a clip of a nearly identical incident to Joel Veltman’s kick on Declan Rice in which Dermot Gallagher argues for a red card for the kicker.

Declan Rice was shown a second yellow card for an incident involving Joel Veltman at the weekend, with Rice nudging the ball away from Veltman and Veltman kicking Rice with his follow through.

As mentioned, Rice received a yellow, but Veltman went unpunished, with Chris Kavanagh choosing to show neither a yellow nor a red for the Brighton player’s kick.

Following the debate on the decision over the weekend, Arsenal fans dug up a 2021 clip of an extremely similar incident.

🗣️ "I just don't understand why it isn't a red card…" 🟥

The #RefWatch panel are baffled as to why Henri Lansbury was not sent off for his swipe on Saturday pic.twitter.com/pImvDyudJe

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 20, 2021

In the clip, Ryan Manning nudges the ball away from Henri Lansbury, and Lansbury kicks Manning with his follow through.

Like Rice, Manning was booked for the incident. But unlike Veltman, Lansbury did receive a yellow card, and former referee Dermot Gallagher argued it should have been red.

“Could’ve [been a red], should’ve,” Gallagher said. “You could use either word, can’t you? I just don’t know why it’s not a red card. I think everybody watching that would say that’s a red card.

“The player would say ‘well, I was going to try and kick the ball, it was our free-kick’, but you put a boot as hard as that into somebody, I feel it’s got to be a red card.”

As for Veltman, in Sky Sports’ two-minute segment with Gallagher on the Rice incident, he never even suggests the Brighton player should have received a yellow, let alone red. Instead, he repeatedly brings the focus back to Rice’s offence.

For whatever reason, it’s now seemingly justified to kick through a player’s leg if you deem them to be wasting time.