Mike Dean makes U-turn and backs Michael Oliver over Lewis-Skelly red in Wolves vs Arsenal
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has agreed with Michael Oliver’s decision to send Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly off against Wolves.
Mikel Arteta’s side had to play the majority of the match with ten men after Lewis-Skelly was shown a red card on 43 minutes by Premier League referee Oliver.
Oliver deemed the Arsenal defender’s challenge on Wolves’ Matt Doherty as ‘serious foul play’ despite it looking like a trip that warranted a yellow card on first viewing.
Dean initially thought it was a yellow card during live Sky Sports coverage, he said: “What he’s done he hasn’t kicked him, he’s gone to trip him and caught the bottom of his boot.
“I don’t think it’s a straight red card in my opinion, I don’t think it is.”
But having seen a still image of the incident, Dean changed his mind to agree with referee Oliver, he added: “I’ve got a still image here and when you see the still image you might understand what the referee’s done.
“It looks like he’s gone to kick him but he’s actually put his studs right down the inside of Doherty’s leg, so that’s why he’s sent him off for serious foul play.
“For me, I can see why Michael’s sent him off with the view he’s got, because it’s not a kick, he’s scraping down the inside of his Achilles onto his foot. So I can understand why he’s been sent off, now I’ve seen the other image.”
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Riccardo Calafiori – who scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal beat Wolves 1-0 – revealed that Lewis-Skelly was “disappointed” in the dressing room.
When asked for his thoughts on the red card, Calafiori replied: “From the bench it was clearly not a red card. But I saw him at half time, he was so disappointed for the team. But in the end we won, so nothing happened.”
Former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood couldn’t believe that Lewis-Skelly had been sent off and took a different view from former Premier League referee Dean.
Sherwood said: “Doherty breaks and he just trips him, he’s 70 yards from goal.
“I cannot believe it, this is not a red card.
“It’s cynical, he trips him, he’s too far away from the goal [to be last man]. It’s not dangerous play, you only send him off if it’s dangerous.”
When asked by reporters if Arsenal will appeal the ban, Gunners boss Arteta said: “That’s for the club to decide what the best decision is. I think it’s that obvious, maybe we don’t even need to.”
