Jamie Carragher says he will “have a word” with Micah Richards over his view on Michael Oliver’s controversial sending off during Wolves vs Arsenal.
Experienced Premier League referee Oliver made a contentious decision to give Myles Lewis-Skelly a straight red card for a cynical foul at Molineux last weekend. The Gunners were forced to play with 10 men for a little over half of the match after VAR official Darren England upheld the decision.
But while Mikel Arteta’s men went on to claim all three points courtesy of a Riccardo Calafiori goal, that didn’t stop Arsenal supporters and a number of pundits from venting their outrage at the harsh decision by Oliver.
That included Carragher’s CBS Sports Golazo colleague Richards, who heavily criticised the call on The Rest Is Football podcast earlier in the week. “Michael Oliver, I like him, I think he’s a top referee, I do,” Richards said.
“I understand the scrutiny these guys are under, but that is the worst decision I’ve ever seen in Premier League football history. That’s how big [a mistake it is], I stick by it. This happens week-in, week-out.”
But Carragher, along with his fellow pundit Gary Neville, believes the reaction has been overblown because of Arsenal’s waning title ambitions. He said on The Overlap US: “This talk of people coming out and saying it was the worst decision, I think a lot of it was because of the fact that no one’s actually seen it but everyone had heard about it. So there was already something in people’s heads.
“I’ve seen my pal, Big Meeks, saying it’s the worst decision he’s ever seen in Premier League history. I need to have a word with him but he’s got it in his head before he’s seen it. Because it wasn’t. It was 100% a yellow card, Oliver made a mistake.
“Arsenal have had a few players sent off this season, not that I think any of them were totally wrong by the way. But the situation Arsenal find themselves in in the league, it feels like they’re one game away from a crisis.
“Because Liverpool are where they are, there’s this frustration that this is supposed to be us and it feels like every game is on the edge. It’s the fact that they’re behind Liverpool, they didn’t expect that. They feel like if they draw and Liverpool win the next game, they’ll lose total belief in winning the league.”
Following the appeal against the red card, Lewis-Skelly’s three-match ban was overturned by an independent regulatory commission. It wasn’t all good news for Arsenal, though, with the FA charging them for their players’ reaction to the sending off.
Arsenal have faced other similarly controversial red card decisions this season, with Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard and William Saliba all being sent off too as they look to end their 21-year wait for a league title.
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