Emmanuel Petit quickly comes alive, though, when Tribalfootball asks the former Arsenal champ what he felt about the red card presented to Declan Rice in the Brighton game.
“That was the most stupid red card I've seen so far this season,” and while finding it hard to disagree, we are curious to know whether he means Rice or the referee.
“Both of them! Rice didn't have a great game against Brighton. He was late on everything. With the ball, without the ball and for his first yellow card, he knew that he couldn't get the ball. He could’ve avoided that. But the second one, I mean, honestly…,” says Emmanuel Petit, having talked himself warm already.
“We all know he's a gentleman. On the pitch, off the pitch, he's very educated, he's got values. You can see that he never does something bad on the pitch. With his teammates, with the referee, with the fans, with the opponents. He always behaves in the right way.
“I know he was a little bit upset, but he shouldn't have kicked the ball. He knew that by doing that, he exposed himself to the second yellow card. When I watched it, I was thinking, ‘he's going to get the second yellow card’. The referee could have been a little bit more lenient but he didn't show any humanity. He just did his job, that's the rules, you did it.
“If I was a referee, I would watch how the players behave on the pitch. I would try to make a difference between players. I know it's hard to hear that but this is how I would deal with players. Some players deserve to get a yellow card, even when they don't do anything because they behave badly all the time. They are always shouting, screaming, insulting opponents, trying to get a free kick by faking fouls on the pitch, things like this, you know. Not Declan Rice, but the referee did his job according to the law,” the French World Champion explains in an exclusive conversation with Tribalfootball.
Rodri is the reference point
Generally a fan of Declan Rice, Petit is an even bigger fan of Manchester City supremo Rodri. What does he think Declan Rice needs to improve to reach the level of Rodri?
“Win medals. He is not far from Rodri, but I think Rodri is the reference-point. Rodri has won so many medals. He has been a rock in the Premier League, in the Champions League and for Spain as well. City is not really the same team when he is not on the pitch. He does so many great things and as a leader as well. But the main difference is consistency.
“I can't remember the last time Rodri played badly. With Declan Rice, most of the time he is good. But sometimes he is not. For Rodri, the consistency in his performances is always the same. He never changes, you always know what you can expect from him. There is no negative surprise. Declan Rice must reach the same level as Rodri in terms of consistency.
“Also, Rodri has scored some beautiful and important goals and Rice needs to improve on that as well. Declan Rice is playing as a number eight, which is a little bit different to Rodri, but Rodri scored more goals and creates more assists than Rice, while playing a deeper position. That needs to improve and on top of that, I think he must win medals.”
On the last day of the transfer window, Arsenal brought in a player with plenty of medals to show in his career, but Petit is unsure what to expect from Raheem Sterling.
“I think it was a panic buy because they were targeting so many wingers for weeks and didn't get them. So, before the transfer market closed, they had to make a decision and Sterling is a gamble. Since he left Manchester City, he has not been very successful for Chelsea. Then again, who was successful for Chelsea over the last few years?
“But you know what you can get from him. He can be very good and he can be such an exasperation on the pitch sometimes, missing great chances. He has to be more productive in front of the goal. But he's got a quality that can be very helpful for Arsenal in terms of speed and he knows exactly what Arteta is expecting from him, so I think it could be a good signing for Arsenal.”
- Emmanuel Petit was speaking to Tribalfootball on behalf of BetVictor