Micah Richards makes bold claim over 'shocking' Myles Lewis-Skelly red card in Arsenal win

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Former England and Manchester City star Micah Richards says Myles Lewis-Skelly’s sending off in Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Wolves is the worst decision he’s ever seen in the history of the Premier League.

Referee Michael Oliver showed Lewis-Skelly a straight red card for bringing down Matt Doherty as Wolves broke with pace following an Arsenal corner, with the scoreline goalless at Molineux.

The foul took place deep inside Arsenal’s half and Lewis-Skelly’s challenge appeared far from reckless on second inspection, but video assistant referee Darren England decided to uphold Oliver’s initial decision – to the utter astonishment of most fans and viewers.

Mikel Arteta said he was still ‘absolutely fuming’ about the highly controversial call as he faced the media shortly after the final whistle, with Lewis-Skelly handed a three-match ban as a result of the sending off.

But a tweet from Premier League Match Centre confirmed that Lewis-Skelly’s challenge was deemed ‘serious foul play’ and the 18-year-old is set to miss the Gunners’ upcoming games with Manchester City, Leicester and Newcastle as it stands.

‘Michael Oliver, I like him. I think he’s a top referee, I do,’ ex-City defender Richards said when reflecting on the incident on The Rest Is Football podcast.

‘I understand the scrutiny that you guys are under, I understand it.

‘But guys, that’s the worst decision I’ve ever seen in Premier League football history and I stick by it.

‘This happens week in, week out. Michael Oliver, yes, I think he’s top, so he makes a mistake and we all make mistakes, when we’re doing our punditry we own up don’t we? How can I improve? Because that’s what any normal human being does, they own up to their mistakes.

‘But how on earth they can go to VAR, look at a screen, look at it multiple times… not even a split second to look at it but ten seconds, 20 seconds, multiple different angles and they still think that is a red card.

‘I don’t like using the word “disgrace” because I feel like it’s easy to throw that word out. But if you look at the magnitude of that decision, it was so poor and for them to double down on the decision, I just think it’s shocking.’

It’s been suggested that video assistant referee England may have caved under the pressure given the magnitude of the situation and Oliver’s seniority among Premier League officials.

But Richards rejected this claim as ‘absolute nonsense’ before calling on the PGMOL to ‘do the right thing’ by overturning the red card.

‘Here’s an analogy. When I was coming through in punditry, I’m with big Gary Lineker, 25 years of experience. I’m with big Alan Shearer, ten to 15 years of experience,’ Richards added.

‘We can disagree on a point, and we do multiple times, but just because you guys are the big guns I don’t have to go along with what you’ve got to say.

‘Regardless of whether it’s right or wrong, they’re there to a job. It’s not friends, it’s not about cosying up, “Oh, they’ll like me more because I don’t want to go against the grain”, that’s just absolute nonsense.

‘I’ll say it again, it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen in Premier League history.

‘For them to look at their fancy screens constantly and still go with that decision, I just think it’s not good enough.’

Richards continued: ‘If they double down, the teams are going to go berserk.

‘Why can’t they just do the right thing? They’ve made a mistake, it’s totally fine.

‘If they give some nonsense statement on Monday morning then there is going to be uproar.’

Former PGMOL boss Keith Hackett did not hold back with his scathing verdict of the ‘disastrous’ decision, telling Oliver to request not to work with VAR England again as a result of the call.

'It's Arsenal and once again they are at the end of a very poor refereeing decision,' an astonished Hackett tweeted.

'Michael Oliver – that is not a red card and if I was you I would tell [Howard] Webb (PGMOL boss) that you do not want to work with your VAR Darren England.

'Between you it was a disaster to send off that Arsenal player.'

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