Jamie Carragher has hit out at Micah Richards’ take on Myles Lewis-Skelly’s controversial sending off against Wolves, joking he needs to have a strong word with the former Manchester City defender.
Arsenal youngster Myles-Skelly was given his marching orders for bringing down Matt Doherty in the first half of last Saturday’s Premier League clash, while the scoreline was still goalless.
Riccardo Calafiori would go on find an all-important winner in the 74th minute, just moments after Wolves were also reduced to ten men, but Lewis-Skelly’s red card was undoubtedly the main talking point coming away from the Molineux contest.
Given the challenge was made deep inside Arsenal’s half, most fans and viewers were left stunned when referee Michael Oliver brandished a red from his pocket – a decision which was upheld by video assistant referee Darren England.
Mikel Arteta said he was ‘absolutely fuming’ when facing the media after the final whistle, while the likes of Alan Shearer and Richards suggested the call was among the worst they had seen in recent memory in the English top flight.
Lewis-Skelly’s three-man ban has since been overturned following an Arsenal appeal, which will come as a major relief to Arteta ahead of his side’s match with Manchester City this weekend.
‘The fact it was a 3pm game and it wasn’t live on TV… I was at the Wigan game and I saw that Arsenal had a man sent off. I could see the reaction on social media and I heard someone on the radio on the way home saying it was the worst decision he’s ever seen,’ Carragher said on The Overlap’s It’s Called Soccer.
‘I’ve got to wait until Match of the Day comes on to watch it but you’ve already got it ingrained in your head that this decision must be horrific.
‘It was a mistake but the more you look at it… he knows it’s a normal trip, that’s a yellow card, but he obviously feels that the studs on the ankle or just above the ankle made it a cynical foul.
‘I didn’t think it was but the referee felt it was but this talk, people coming out saying it was the worst decision, I think a lot of it was because no one had actually seen it but everyone had heard about it before and there was something in people’s heads.’
Carragher believes the comments made by Richards, his long-time Sky Sports colleague, may have been influenced by the extraordinary reaction the sending off received on social media.
The ex-Liverpool and England centre-back added: ‘I saw my big pal, Big Meeks [Micah Richards], saying it was the worst decision he’s ever seen in Premier League history and I’m like, “Oh… I need to have a word with him!”, but I think it’s mostly come from the fact he’s almost got it in his head before he’s seen it.
‘It was 100 per cent a yellow card, a nailed-on yellow, that maybe an orange, studs on the ankle.
‘But it was a certain yellow and, listen, they made a mistake.’
Gary Neville, meanwhile, felt the response to Lewis-Skelly’s red was massively exaggerated and accused Arsenal supporters of being ‘entitled’.
‘I just thought it was a cynical attempt to break up play like you see many times, classic yellow card, you move on and the rest of the game occurs where you know the player is on a yellow card,’ the former Manchester United right-back said.
‘We see it sometimes, whether it’s a little trip, whether it’s a pull back of the shirt, whether it’s a wrapping of of the arm around the body… classic stopping of a counter-attack, for me, and it was a yellow card.
‘I don’t think it was the worst decision I’ve ever seen in the world.
‘One thing I will see is and, to be fair, I’m not bothered because Arsenal fans are not great fans of me anyway, but I think they’ve become so entitled.
‘Honestly, they were playing against Wolves. Wolves have had more bad decisions against them in the last 15 months than any other club in the country it feels like. They had some shockers against them last season.
‘I just feel like every time Arsenal have a decision against them and it was a bad decision, but I feel like the exaggeration in the response… maybe it was the same with Manchester United back in the day and that’s why people didn’t like us and maybe that’s what Arsenal are creating now, that siege mentality and Mikel Arteta likes that.
‘But I can see why people didn’t like us back in the day in relation to referees because they felt like that about how we reacted and the same with this Arsenal team.
‘There is a definite exaggeration from Arsenal and their cohort of people in their sphere. Every time they have a decision against them it’s like the end of the world!’
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