Former ref admits Arsenal can win red-card appeal | OneFootball

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Former referee Mike Dean believes Arsenal can win an appeal against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card suspension, with a few key games coming up for the Gunners.

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18-year-old defender Myles Lewis-Skelly has been a regular in the Arsenal starting lineup in recent weeks, making the starting team for six of the Gunners’ last eight Premier League fixtures.

But as it stands, he’ll be unavailable for upcoming league games at home to Manchester City and away to Leicester City, as well as missing the League Cup semi-final second leg against Newcastle United.

Michael Oliver took the bizarre decision to send Lewis-Skelly off in the first half of Saturday’s game away to Wolves, and the straight red card for “serious foul play” means a three-game ban.

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Yet pundits and former players from all over the league have all agreed that the red card was harsh – and that’s an understatement.

Even former referees have suggested the decision was incorrect, and Mike Dean told Sky Sports that Arsenal could win an appeal.

“I think they’ve got ground for appeal,” Dean said. “It’s just when the panel sits and reviews it, ex-managers, ex-players, which way will they go?

“And I would think if they appeal, the way managers and players look at it, none of the players will think it’s a red card. So I think they may well win the appeal.”

Even Oliver himself seemed to change his view on such fouls later in the game, when he only awarded Joao Gomes a yellow card for a more obvious example of serious foul play.

Fortunately for Arsenal, Gomes was already on a yellow, but he should have received a straight red based on the precedent Oliver had set earlier in the game.

Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Mikel Arteta has suggested that Arsenal will appeal if they need to, pointing to other red-card overturns as evidence that Lewis-Skelly’s should also be rescinded.

“Hopefully we don’t need to, and if we have to, it happened and it’s a really good precedent for what happened with Bruno [Fernandes] as well this season,” Arteta said.

“Okay, we were in a position that we shouldn’t be in (playing with 10 men), but at least [let us] be in a position we should be in for the next few weeks and allow our players to continue to show up.”

Arsenal’s next game is in the Champions League against Girona, so Lewis-Skelly will be available for that match anyway. That gives the Gunners and the Premier League a few extra days to sort an appeal in time for the subsequent game against Manchester City.