Gary Lineker not happy with what he’s now heard about Arsenal and Declan Rice

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Arsenal are currently in a bit of a difficult situation going into the North London derby this weekend.

The Gunners began the season without new signing Mikel Merino, who suffered an injury in training.

Arsenal then found themselves without Declan Rice for the Tottenham game due to a controversial dismissal in the Brighton game.

Now, the Gunners risk being without captain Martin Odegaard, who suffered an ankle injury in his latest outing for Norway.

And with regards to the Rice sending off, some Arsenal fans will feel the Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel has added insult to injury.

The KMI has unanimously supported referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision to send the Gunners midfielder off in the game against the Seagulls.

Gary Lineker has now delivered a pretty brutal verdict on the KMI’s decision, summing it up in two words.

Gary Lineker says Declan Rice sending off was ‘utter nonsense’

Lineker took to X to respond to BBC Sport’s article on the KMI’s decision, and described it simply as “utter nonsense”.

What have others said on the Rice sending off?

Lineker previously defended Rice, telling The Rest Is Football podcast that football has “kind of lost its mind a little bit for me to get a second yellow and red card for that.”

Meanwhile, Alan Shearer said: “Yeah, I totally get and understand the argument. Do we want to see it? No, not really.”

However, Shearer also played devil’s advocate, adding: “Is it the law? Yes. Were the players told about that in pre-season? They were sat down and warned, yes.”

Lineker then said: “I saw Declan Rice said that he didn’t actually try and flick the ball away. It just kind of, it was just, I mean, he just barely touched it to be honest.”

Micah Richards was emphatic in his opinion, saying: “No this is, honestly, I feel completely different to the way you guys feel, I think that was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.”

Who could replace Rice in Arsenal’s midfield?

With Martin Odegaard’s fitness now in question, this forces Arteta’s hand with regards to who comes in to replace both Rice and Odegaard.

The likelihood is that Jorginho will come in for Rice , while Odegaard could be replaced by Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Oleksandr Zinchenko or Ethan Nwaneri.