5 referee decisions that have gone against Arsenal this season

2. Myles Lewis-Skelly red card vs Wolves (January 2025)

Give the referee an inch and he takes a mile (Part 2).

At first glance, everything about this incident screamed yellow card: Matt Doherty led the breakaway from an Arsenal corner, Myles Lewis-Skelly deliberately tripped him just outside the Wolves box and then scuttled off in the expectation of a cynical booking.

However, Michael Oliver thought otherwise and produced a red card, with his verdict of ‘serious foul play’ being met with disbelief by the visitors but ultimately backed up by VAR Darren England (more on him later…).

This decision, again, CAN be justified as Lewis-Skelly acted with intent and did catch Doherty with his studs just above the ankle, thereby giving the referee a decision to make.

But the frustration towards Oliver lies in his choice of ‘maximum punishment’ and how Arsenal tend to get both barrels if there is even a slight possibility that such an extreme sanction can be defended – and from a referee known to not want to negatively impact a game by overreacting.

Nine times out of ten, one would expect a yellow card here and the glancing nature of the contact – a factor which, ultimately, led to our successful appeal of the decision – means Oliver and VAR could have taken that easy option, citing those mitigating factors (e.g. fleeting contact, cynical element, the distance from goal) as reasons to excuse Lewis-Skelly.

But instead, Arsenal felt the full force of the law yet again and were reduced to ten men for the final 50 minutes. At least Riccardo Calafiori came up trumps with a fine strike to ensure we would still take all three points.    

Continued on the next slide...