Gary Neville says ‘sorry’ to Declan Rice after Arsenal v Aston Villa incident
Gary Neville had to apologise to Declan Rice on behalf of Sky Sports as Arsenal and Aston Villa drew 2-2 at the Emirates on Saturday.
Rice, 26, played all 90 minutes as the Gunners let slip of a two-goal lead to drop vital points in the Premier League title race.
Minutes before Havertz’s 55th-minute goal, Manchester United legend Neville had to say sorry to England international Rice ahead of him taking a corner for Arsenal.
Sky Sports’ footage showed Rice carefully moving one of the broadcasters’ pitch-side microphones out of the way so that he could fire a cross into the Aston Villa area.
Sky Sports equipment causes Rice apology in Arsenal v Aston Villa
“Sorry, Declan. Microphone annoying him,” said Neville on Sky Sports Main Event (6:38pm, 18 January).
Sky Sports commentator Rob Hawthorne then said: “At least he placed it politely out of the way.”
Rice’s decision to move the microphone was justified.
He delivered a beautiful cross into the six-yard box but unfortunately for Arsenal, Aston Villa’s towering defender Tyrone Mings managed to head the ball out for another corner on the opposite side of the pitch.
Martin Odegaard then took the resulting corner but it didn’t amount to much before Kai Havertz doubled Arsenal’s lead.
Youri Tielemans got the Villans back into the game in the 60th minute before Ollie Watkins, a boyhood Arsenal fan, scored the fourth goal of the match eight minutes later.
Havertz had a late goal disallowed by VAR after Mikel Merino’s strike clearly hit the German forward’s arm on its way into Emi Martinez’s net.
Leandro Trossard then saw a 96th-minute shot go millimetres wide of Martinez’s post as Aston Villa hung onto a draw in North London.
In other Aston Villa news, Villa are hijacking a transfer with Monchi in advanced talks over a blockbuster deal.
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