Arsenal have appealed against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s controversial red card against Wolves.
Lewis-Skelly, 18, became the third youngest player to be dismissed in Premier League history when he was shown a straight red card by referee Michael Oliver in the first half of Arsenal’s 1-0 win for taking down Matt Doherty in his own half.
The decision was met with disbelief by pundits, with Alan Shearer calling it ‘one of the worst decisions that I’ve seen in a long time’.
The victory, which saw Wolves also reduced to 10 men in the second half at Molineux, kept the pressure on title rivals Liverpool.
However, it is understood that the Gunners have lodged an appeal with the Football Association in the hope that Lewis-Skelly’s suspension will be overturned.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the incident, Mikel Arteta refused to confirm his club would appeal and hoped PGMOL would rescind the red card themselves.
’I think it’s that obvious, we don’t need any comments today and hopefully the right thing will happen after today,’ the Arsenal manager said.
‘Hopefully we don’t need to, and if we have to, it happened and it’s a really good precedent for what happened with Bruno [Fernandes] as well this season.
‘Ok we were in a position that we shouldn’t be in but at least be in a position we should be in for the next few weeks and allow our players to continue to show up.’
Oliver, meanwhile, will not referee the Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester City on Sunday.
Oliver is regarded as one of the world’s top officials but has faced threats and abuse since his decision to send off Lewis-Skelly.
The 39-year-old’s home is reportedly under police guard following threats towards him and his family, which have been condemned by his employer.
Oliver will instead officiate the Ipswich v Southampton match this Saturday.
Before that, he will be in charge for the Champions League match between Barcelona and Atalanta on Wednesday night.
Oliver’s decision was reviewed and upheld by VAR Darren England, who this weekend will referee the match between Bournemouth and Liverpool.
Lewis-Skelly, for his part, trained with his Arsenal team-mates at the club’s London Colney base on Tuesday prior to their final Champions League group fixture against Girona.
Arsenal are third in the 36-team table and are well placed to progress to the last 16 automatically.
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