Arsenal Blogs

Controversial Red Appealed In Arsenal’s Favour

|
Image for Controversial Red Appealed In Arsenal’s Favour

Last weekend’s Premier League clash at Molineux Stadium with Wolverhampton Wanderers certainly left Arsenal fans with plenty to talk about, and commentators and pundits were more than happy to get in on the act as well given the over all performance we put in and, maybe more importantly the straight red card that was handed to Myles Lewis-Skelly.

As Gunners fans will be keenly aware, we ultimately took all three points and the win following a late 74th minute winner from Riccardo Calafiori, but as those following on Arsenal live scores will know, we had been made to work incredibly hard for it. Referee Michael Oliver had decided to controversially show the 18 year old a straight red minutes before the half time break, for a foul on Matt Doherty 30 yards from their own goal as he tried to break from a corner.

It is probably notable to say our Academy graduate became the third youngest player in Premier League history to get sent off, just behind Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, but whilst the statto’s might have liked that one, everyone else watching was left wondering what they had missed in order for it to be a straight red and not a simple yellow, as was expected.

Nobody doubted that it was a deliberate, and cynical foul designed to stop the break away but every week there’s an incident (or two) where a player gets a warning, and Alan Shearer was not wrong when he called it ‘one of the worst’ decisions that he had ever seen, whilst freely acknowledging it was absolutely a foul.

So it was no surprise to see us confirm that we had officially appealed the decision this week, and we were always going to safe in the knowledge that nobody could come up with a reason as to why we would lose.

With the young defender facing a three match ban, the appeal expectedly found favour with the independent regulatory commission who agreed it was a case of wrongful dismissal. A foul, yes. Cynical, maybe so. Serious foul play by any available definition, not in a Wolverhampton week of Saturday’s.

In understandably overturning the three match ban the lad was looking at, Lewis-Skelly comes back into manager Mikel Arteta’s first team thoughts instantly but although our gaffer was adamant in his review about the decision, and happy to say he was ‘absolutely fuming’ at the production of the red, purely as a learning curve moment as the challenge did take place above the ankle and gave the ref the decision to make, few Arsenal fans would be surprised to see him sit out the next couple of games here just so he remembers better in the future.

But that would be for our gaffer to decide based on the conversations that have taken place behind closed doors, as one thing is absolutely for sure here, he will not be the first youngster to make this kind of a mistake during a game, and he certainly will not be the last one either.

Whether or not fans like this side of the game, the lesson is purely one of being more clever in the future and not giving a referee the chance to interpret it wrong.

Image Source: unsplash.com

Share this article