Tag: explaining

When Matt Doherty took his touch past Myles Lewis-Skelly, it was obvious to everyone inside Molineux what would come next. The 18-year-old Arsenal full-back duly brought Doherty down to prevent Wolves from breaking into the two-thirds of the pitch left vacant by Arsenal’s entire team being within 30 yards of the opposition goal for Declan Rice’s corner kick.

Lewis-Skelly walked away from the scene with the calmness of a player content that he had delivered an exemplary professional foul and taken a cynical yellow for his team. When he turned around, red was the colour of the card that referee Michael Oliver was brandishing. The teenager’s face was a picture of bemusement, as if he had missed an incident while he was looking the other way.

But the red card was for him. Two minutes before half-time, Arsenal found themselves confronted by a familiar wave of injustice. This was the fourth time they had been reduced to 10 men in the Premier League this season and, while there was a sense of grievance around Rice and Leandro Trossard being sent off against Brighton and Manchester City respectively for perceived time-wasting, this was a mix of bafflement and rage that had no caveats.

Oliver had the red card knocked from his hand as Arsenal’s apoplectic players protested the decision. Rice turned to the travelling supporters with his hands out and laughed, presumably because the only other option would be to cry.

At first, the only rationale those inside the ground could comprehend was that Oliver had deemed Lewis-Skelly to be the last defender between Doherty and the goal, but replays showed Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri were covering. Doherty was also 25 yards from his own net when he got brought down, so it would have taken a vivid imagination to suggest Lewis-Skelly was denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

It seemed inevitable that the VAR team would recommend to Oliver that he take another look at the incident on the pitchside monitor. Instead, Darren England — who was the VAR when Liverpool’s Luis Diaz had a goal against Tottenham Hotspur ruled out for offside early last season — checked and cleared the decision.

The Premier League confirmed that Oliver’s decision was based on the severity of the foul rather than its location on the pitch.

There has since been widespread disbelief and anger on social media over the decision, as well as the VAR’s role in upholding it.

On BBC Radio 5 Live, former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin said officials were setting standards at “a bar so low even a limbo-dancing snake couldn’t get under it”.

Premier League rules state that a tackle that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. The considerations Oliver had to weigh up in his mind here included the speed, intensity, force, degree of control and the point and extent of contact.

If the contact occurs on the foot, it is typically considered reckless and indicative of a yellow card, but if contact is high, full and forceful on the ankle or above, referees are to consider it dangerous and therefore worthy of a red.

Mike Dean, the former Premier League referee, was one of the few pundits to support the decision. He said on Sky Sports: “When you see a still image, you understand what he has done. He has put his studs down his leg for serious foul play. Scraped down the Achilles.”

Lewis-Skelly’s right boot did catch Doherty above the ankle but it looked like a tripping motion from the side rather than a high-paced impact from behind that could have done serious damage.

This was the eighth red card Oliver has shown to Arsenal players in his career, more than any other team he has officiated.

He was not flavour of the month with Arsenal fans before this weekend, as he showed Gabriel Martinelli two yellow cards within seconds for interrupting a throw-in and then fouling the player in the same sequence of play, also against Wolves, in February 2022. Oliver also decided against showing Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic a second yellow for a late, lunging tackle from behind on Rice in October 2023, a decision referees’ chief Howard Webb said was incorrect.

Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright was so vexed over the Lewis-Skelly incident he posted a video on his Instagram account criticising the decision. “It’s a joke. Anyone who has ever played the game — and I’m not even talking Premier League — I’m talking five-a-side, Sunday League, knows that it was never a red,” he said.

“(Give a) yellow card and nobody says a word. Time and time again, this level of refereeing in the Premier League, the decisions, the inconsistency, the excuses, the apologies. All of them are just the centre of attention for me.

“We can’t criticise too hard, simply because where are the refs going to come from? 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? At the moment, with this level of refereeing, we’re nowhere near it.”

Lewis-Skelly is now scheduled to be suspended for Arsenal’s next three domestic games, including the visit of Manchester City and the second leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final away to Newcastle. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who declined to speak about the incident post-match other than to say he was “fuming”, suggested the decision to show a red card was so obviously wrong that he hopes the club will not even need to appeal for that ban to be overturned.

While Oliver’s call was not reversed by the VAR, Arsenal could still appeal against it, as Manchester United did in October last year when Bruno Fernandes was sent off for a high-boot challenge against Tottenham, below.

When Arteta named his team to face Wolves, the absences of captain Martin Odegaard (illness) and fellow midfielder Mikel Merino (knock) were the latest examples of Arsenal being denied continuity this season. When Lewis-Skelly was sent off, the weight of evidence that this is a cursed campaign for the north London side grew even heavier.

With Liverpool 3-0 up at half-time at home to Ipswich in another of the day’s 3pm kick-offs, the possibility of Arne Slot’s side moving eight or nine points clear with a game in hand on Arsenal loomed ominously.

Arteta had to find a way to still attack despite the numerical disadvantage and at half-time he substituted Nwaneri who, alongside Lewis-Skelly yesterday, had become the first two English players aged 18 or younger to start together in a league game for Arsenal since February 1998.

The Spaniard made the unusual decision to switch to a 5-3-1 rather than the more conventional 4-4-1 or 4-3-2, bringing on Riccardo Calafiori to play left wing-back.

Arsenal dominated territory in the opening 15 minutes of the second half as Rice and centre-back William Saliba railed against the doom by taking it in turns to single-handedly drive their team upfield. Arsenal resisted the temptation to become passive and, after Wolves’ Joao Gomes was shown a second yellow for a late challenge which caught Jurrien Timber on the ankle, parity was restored.

That left them with 20 minutes plus stoppage time to find a winner and it was Calafiori who delivered it four minutes later, bending a terrific half-volley away from goalkeeper Jose Sa and into the far corner. His badge-kissing and sprint into the middle of a wild flash-mob scene by the away dugout, which saw every team-mate celebrating as if it was their strike, captured how Arsenal had embraced the adversity and found a way to channel anger into defiance.

Arteta lived every action of the closing minutes. After conceding equalisers to Brighton and Manchester City to drop points on previous occasions this season when losing a man, he knew how important seeing through this victory was for belief.

It keeps Arsenal in the title race but also gave Arteta’s team and the fan base their first emotionally charged victory of the season. Yes, Arsenal have beaten big teams but until Saturday they had not enjoyed the release of unbridled joy that only comes from late winners or overcoming the odds.

GO DEEPER

The Briefing: Wolves 0 Arsenal 1 – Was Lewis-Skelly’s red card harsh? How did Arteta’s 10 men play?

Oliver’s full-time whistle delivered that outlet. An exhausted Kai Havertz had to be picked up from the ground but Rice found the energy to raise both hands in front of the delirious away supporters, who had kept their team going from their positions down the length of the Billy Wright Stand.

Even Arteta allowed himself an impassioned celebration before he bounded back across the pitch and down the tunnel.

It has taken until almost February but Arsenal have their first truly momentous victory of the season.

They will hope they look back on Lewis-Skelly’s red card as the moment they finally turned a speed bump into a ramp.

(Top images: Premier League)