Michael Oliver during Arsenal games (Photo by Naomi Baker, Carl Recine/Getty Images)
I don’t see how Michael Oliver can take charge of another Arsenal game. Certainly for a fair while anyway.
We’ve seen it happen with some referees in the past when their chequered history with certain clubs has seen them conveniently placed on other games when they are playing and I think that probably has to happen here now as well.
What happened on Saturday was the last straw in terms of Arsenal and Oliver. There have now just been too many high profile incidents when he has been in charge of their games.
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Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports on Sunday that he could probably count on one hand the amount of mistakes Oliver has made in his career. Well, that’s just rubbish really because you would need two hands just to count the mistakes he has made in Arsenal games alone.
There is just no trust there anymore.
Everyone could see that it wasn’t a red card on Sunday. It’s very rare that you see almost every high profile pundit and commentator in the country express their shock at a decision, yet that’s what happened after Oliver opted to send off Lewis-Skelly.
The condemnation of the decision was universal and PGMOL could easily have quietened the noise by coming out almost straight away and accepting that a mistake had been made.
It took one replay to show it was never a red card, even when viewing the incident through the worst possible angle of the foul it wasn’t enough for a straight dismissal.
So just own up to the mistake and move on. But instead Howard Webb and PGMOL have doubled down and the whole thing has dragged on far longer than it should have.
No room for abuse, but we can’t ignore Michael Oliver’s failings
The statement released on Sunday revealing Oliver had been the subject of abuse was obviously awful to see. No-one should suffer abuse, whether that be players or match officials.
But that shouldn’t be used to wash over the obvious failings we saw from the officials, both on the pitch and in the VAR studio on Sunday.
It’s just another incident that has gone against Arsenal that you can place in the ‘we’ll never see that again’ category. It’s never been a red card before and it will never be a red card again.
Fortunately it wasn’t costly from a result point of view, but if the decision isn’t overturned then Arsenal will be without Lewis-Skelly for three games and that will add even more pressure onto an already overstretched squad.
Even at Wolves we Kai Havertz end the game barely being able to walk, probably because of the increased amount of running he had to do due to Arsenal being man down for so long.
So while the red card wasn’t costly in terms of the result, it was in terms of the fitness of some players and it could be again over the course of the next three games.
It’s just not good enough and that’s why there has been so much frustration expressed from Arsenal fans across the world after this latest incident because it’s just happening too many times.
