ARSENAL HAVE BEEN successful in their appeal against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s straight red card in Saturday’s Premier League game at Wolves.
Teenage midfielder Lewis-Skelly was sent off for serious foul play after bringing down Matt Doherty shortly before half-time and referee Michael Oliver’s decision was ratified by VAR.
The FA said: “An independent regulatory commission has upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal in relation to Myles Lewis-Skelly and removed his three-match suspension.
“The Arsenal player was sent off for serious foul play during their Premier League fixture against Wolves on Saturday, January 25.”
Oliver’s decision infuriated Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and the club’s fans and was widely criticised by pundits, with Alan Shearer calling it “one of the worst decisions that I’ve seen in a long time”.
Lewis-Skelly became the third youngest player to be dismissed in Premier League history, but the Gunners lodged an appeal in a bid to get the red card overturned and the FA’s decision means the 18-year-old will not be suspended.
Arsenal went on to win the match at Wolves, who were also reduced to 10 men in the second half, thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s second-half effort, which kept the pressure on title rivals Liverpool.
Lewis-Skelly 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.
Tackle was extremely cynical. Player was never getting near the ball. He knew exactly what he was doing. I think we should be applauding the ref
@liam glynn: bit of common sense! I hadn’t seen the incident till yesterday. Was expecting the greatest miscarriage of justice ever. Probably a harsh red but a very cynical foul. Maybe arsenal fans should focus on that a bit more.
@Brian Dunne: the focus was quite rightly a harsh red,it deserved a yellow all day long, irony now is he will probably escape with no card.
@liam glynn: Yes the idea was to take a yellow card for the team
@liam glynn: Cynical maybe but never ‘serious foul play’. Do you understand football? He wasn’t sent off for ‘cynical’ play…
@liam glynn: Cynical has zero got to do with it buddy. Any pull of the jersey or trip = yellow card. It has been in the rule book from day dot. If it happened to your team would you be so quick to “applaud” the ref? The same ref that said a stone wall red card against Kovicic “I didn’t want to ruin the game” but no problem red carding an 18y/o for a “synical” foul.
@Brian Dunne: Since when has a cynical foul been a red card? Maybe man united fans shouldn’t be sharing their dribble opinions on arsenal treads lol.
@Sean O’Maolain: I said it was harsh Sean. Should have been a yellow. But going by the interweb on Saturday you’d think it was the worst decision ever made in the history of association football.
@Brian Dunne: It wasn’t the worst call in history but it’s the accumulation of refereeing decisions by Michael Oliver against Arsenal. 8 red cards to Arsenal players in 50 games. 0 for Man city players in 50 games. 2 of those red cards will never happen again in football history. The martinelli double yellow card and the Lewis-skelly red card.
The right decision.
@Deano74: correct. Cynical no doubt but no way a red.
If only there was an on field review system?
Like a video review maybe?
Maybe reviewed by experienced Ref’s
Only a thought.
@colin coady: That for me is the biggest culprit in all this,Oliver made a decision in real time,what is the point of var if they couldn’t see what every one else could see on replays it was a yellow all day long,Oliver made a mistake and has been treated horrendously,but var failed him.
@Deano74: All on VAR for me the tool is there to aid the ref and it let him down horribly.
If the decision was wrong, why are both officials not suspended from this weekends fixtures?…. Was it reduced to a yellow?
@Paul Linehan: Oliver was taken off the game on Sunday,I’m not sure if he gets another one,my guess he will be left out to allow him escape scrutiny,and also the disgraceful threats he received,as for the yellow,I don’t think they can apply one now,I’m open to correction on that,irony is he probably will escape punishment for what was a yellow offence in the first place.
@Deano74: Michael Oliver is down to do the Ipswich game on Saturday because of the abuse issue and Darren England will referee the Bournemouth game the same day and no yellow attached to the Arsenal lad. Premier league clarity at its finest.
@Paul Linehan: I genuinely taught they would leave him out,I think as per a message I posted earlier he was let down by var,it was yellow and it should of been flagged at the time,it would of saved all this needless nonsense and controversy.
Michael Oliver probably told var not to intervene, he wasn’t going to change his mind
@Patrick Walsh: var did get involved it was checked and they confirmed Oliver’s decision of serious foul play Darren England was the var ref I think.
FA undermining the authority of the referee big time here. The incident could be argued a red or a yellow. Definitely a foul and over turning it feels like a political insider job rather than doing the right thing
@Barry Baz: blah.