Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a controversial red card during the Gunners’ 1-0 victory against Wolves, leaving manager Mikel Arteta ‘absolutely fuming’
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has become the latest pundit to slam Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card against Wolves.
Lewis-Skelly, 18, was controversially sent off in the Gunners’ dramatic 1-0 win at Molineux on Saturday. The Arsenal left-back caught Matt Doherty’s ankle with his studs just five yards outside Wolves ‘ penalty area to stop a counter attack.
Referee Michael Oliver deemed his tackle ‘serious foul play’ and the teenage defender went for an early bath shortly before half-time. Fortunately for Arsenal, they eventually managed to grab all three points through a goal from substitute Riccardo Calafiori, although boss Mikel Arteta was still ‘absolutely fuming’ after the final whistle.
Wright joined him, taking to social media to slam Oliver’s decision and the Premier League ‘s standard of refereeing. “Can I just say? It’s a joke. Anyone that has ever played the game, and I’m not even talking Premier League – I’m talking five-a-side, Sunday league – knows it’s never a red,” the former striker fumed.
“Yellow card, nobody says a word. Time and time again, this level of refereeing, the decisions in the Premier League, the inconsistency, the excuses, the apologies – all of [the referees] just [want to be the] centre of attention, for me. We can’t criticise too hard because where are the refs going to come from? Where are we going to get them?
“But, I’m sorry. This is the highest level of football and we do not have the highest level of referees. When will the Premier League bring the best refs into the so-called best league in the world. Because, at the moment, with this level of referees, we’re nowhere near it. Nowhere near it.”
Wright added as the caption of his Instagram post: “Whether you’ve played Sunday League or 5 a side or Premier League level you know it’s just never ever a red card.
“They are going to try and find all sorts of angles and slow mo’s to try and justify the incompetency and inconsistency of PGMOL [the body in charge of Premier League officials]. Because what’s the point of the VAR if the ref did get it wrong but they won’t correct him???????”
Do you agree with Ian Wright? Have your say in the comments section.
Arteta felt that the decision was so obviously wrong that he didn’t need to talk about it during his post-match press conference. ” I think it’s that obvious, we don’t need any comments today and hopefully the right thing will happen after today,” the Gunners boss explained.
“Hopefully we don’t need to [appeal the decision], and if we have to, it happened and it’s a really good precedent for what happened with Bruno [Fernandes] as well this season. Okay, 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.”
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