Mikel Arteta delivered scathing verdict on referee Michael Oliver’s decision to send off Myles Lewis-Skelly during Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Wolves.
The Gunners kept themselves in the Premier League title race thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s second half strike, but the dismissal of the player he effectively replaced dominated the post match agenda.
Lewis-Skelly would have expected to have collected a yellow card for a cynical trip on Matt Doherty, especially given the offence took place on the edge of the Wolves penalty area.
The teenager and his teammates were left stunned, however, when Oliver brandished a red card with the decision upheld by VAR and the challenge deemed ‘serious foul play’.
Asked for his response to a decision that former England captain Alan Shearer called one of the worst he had ever seen Arteta was typically forthright and said: ‘It is that clear that I leave it to you guys. I am absolutely fuming but I leave it with you. Because it is that obvious. I don’t think my words are going to help.’
Lewis-Skelly will now serve a three- match ban unless Arsenal are successful with an appeal.
Asked if his club would attempt to get the ban lifted, Arteta added: ‘That’s for the club to decide what the best decision is. I think it’s that obvious, maybe we don’t even need to.’
Pressed on the subject of an appeal in his post match press conference, Arteta said he hoped the Premier League would see the incident as being similar to the one which saw a Bruno Fernandes red card against Tottenham scrubbed from the record books earlier this season.
‘Hopefully we don’t need to,’ he said. ‘If we have to there is a really good precident with what happened with Bruno this season as well.
‘Hopefully OK we were in a position we shouldn’t have been in but at least there is a position we should be in for the next few weeks and have a player who is allowed to do his job.’
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean, meanwhile, attempted to launch a defence of his former colleague, but Shearer could not believe hs eyes when a red card was brandished.
‘As a referee you can get it wrong on the pitch, you might see something which is incorrect, said Shearer.
‘How on earth Darren England, the VAR, thinks that the referee has got that right and there is no need to send him to the screen.
‘One of the worst decisions that I’ve seen in a long time.
‘I just cannot see and work out what VAR is thinking going along with Michael Oliver’s decision. No wonder it gets criticised by so many people.
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