Arsenal and their fans an absolute disgrace – Michael Oliver is only guilty of this | OneFootball

The behaviour of a large minority of Arsenal fans has been embarrassing for a very long time, however, this latest Michael Oliver incident is just beyond belief.

Just in case you weren’t aware, on Saturday the Gunners won 1-0 at Wolves.

Both teams had a player sent off by Michael Oliver.

Gomes red carded on 70 minutes after two yellows, whilst Myles Lewis-Skelly was given a straight red on 43 minutes.

Both the VAR and the on the pitch referee Michael Oliver involved in the decision that Arsenal are furious about.

The Arsenal players surrounding the referee when the incident happened, whilst Mikel Arteta went and confronted Michael Oliver as he was set to leave the pitch.

A shameful reaction then following from a large number of Arsenal fans, appalling abuse aimed at Michael Oliver and his family, including death threats, plus claims that the top referee’s home address had been found and made public online.

Important to point out that this is not all Arsenal fans and indeed when I had a look at what was going up online from some shameful individuals, other decent Arsenal fans were quick to tell them that this is simply a football match, that making death threats and making public where Michael Oliver and his family live, is an absolute disgrace.

Sadly though, I saw far too many Arsenal fans not seeing anything wrong with this kind of behaviour, so many of them revelling in it.

So bad has it become, that the police have now got involved and PGMOL have released an official statement.

‘Police are investigating “threats and abuse” directed at referee Michael Oliver following Arsenal’s game against Wolves on Saturday, the PGMOL has said.

Oliver sent off Gunners defender Myles Lewis-Skelly after he caught opposing defender Matt Doherty above the ankle to break up a counter-attack just outside the Wolves box in the 43rd minute.

The decision was upheld by Darren England, who was the video assistant referee (VAR) for the game at Molineux.

“We are appalled by the threats and abuse directed at Michael Oliver,” said referees’ body PGMOL.

“No official should be subject to any form of abuse, let alone the abhorrent attacks aimed at Michael and his family over the past 24 hours.”

The statement added that “a number of investigations have commenced”.

“We are supporting Michael, and all those affected, and are determined to tackle this unacceptable behaviour.”

BBC Sport has been shown examples of some of the abuse posted on social media platforms about Oliver including death threats and threats to make his home address public.

The Premier League said it “strongly condemns the threats and abuse directed at Michael Oliver”.

It added: “No official should be subject to any form of abuse. We will continue to support Michael, PGMOL and all investigations.”

Oliver also dismissed Wolves midfielder Joao Gomes later in the match before Riccardo Calafiori scored Arsenal’s winner with the only goal of the game.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta disagreed with the red card and told BBC Match of the Day the decision was “so obvious that today you don’t need my words”.

The decision was also criticised by former officials and pundits.

“Sadly, this is not the first time a match official has been forced to deal with threats in recent times,” added the PGMOL.

“We will continue to support all investigations.”

Chelsea fans

This Arsenal fans and Michael Oliver episode has clear parallels to what happened with Chelsea fans and Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo back in 2009.

He refereed a game at Stamford Bridge which ended with Chelsea knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona. Chelsea fans, manager Guus Hiddink and their players behaving disgracefully (A number of Chelsea players received punishments from UEFA for their behaviour and as a club Chelsea were also fined).

Tom Henning Ovrebo received horrific abuse, including death threats, plus what was claimed to be his home address in Oslo made public online by Chelsea fans.

Again, does this sound familiar?

Anybody who thinks that way over the top behaviour by a manager, players and indeed the entire club, doesn’t help contribute to shocking behaviour by their fanbases, they are sadly mistaken.

All clubs get decisions go against them but don’t go on like Arsenal do. Just look at what happened back in November 2023 when it ended up Newcastle 1 Arsenal 0 and Gordon scored the winner. By far the worst decision that day was only a yellow card for Havertz when his cowardly challenge with no intention whatsoever of trying to get the ball, could have seriously hurt Sean Longstaff, as the ‘challenge’ launched Longstaff off the pitch. Yet Arteta, his players, many Arsenal fans, behaving shamefully during and after the match. This mainly due to the supposedly controversial goal, with VAR considering three things. A possible offside which VAR found was not the case, a possible ball out of play which was shown to be not the case, which left whether or not the on the pitch referee had missed a clear and obvious foul by Joelinton on a defender – which was also found not to be the case. Yet Arsenal going on to ridiculous lengths, with the club later releasing an official statement backing up all the shameful comments from Mikel Arteta. Former Arsenal chief David Dein condemned that embarrassing official Arsenal club statement, saying no chance of something so embarrassing happening when he was in charge.

Back in 2009, Chelsea were quick to distance themselves from the death threats made to the Norwegian referee, saying as a club they found the abuse totally unacceptable, that any Chelsea fans identified taking part in this shameful behaviour would be banned by the club.

Maybe I have missed it but I haven’t seen Arsenal do anything yet, no official public statement condemning the abuse and threats aimed at Michael Oliver. Just checked (2pm Monday 27 January 2025) and nothing at all on the official Arsenal website.

The lunatic fringe of Arsenal fans claiming that this is all a big conspiracy against them and their club. Claiming they are singled out for so many supposedly poor/wrong decisions. It is laughable, as every single club (and many of their fans) believe this at times BUT don’t go on like so many Arsenal fans. In the cold light of day, as football fans we accept that we all get bad decisions go against us, or at least in our opinion we do, but that in reality all clubs/fanbases get this, though nowhere near as many poor decisions as used to be the case for everybody before VAR was introduced.

The general consensus certainly appears to be that Michael Oliver and VAR got it wrong on Saturday, that Myles Lewis-Skelly should have got a yellow and not red card.

However, that doesn’t mean that there is a conspiracy against Arsenal football club.

Nor is it ‘proof’ that Michael Oliver is making refereeing decisions based on him being a Newcastle United fan.

Honestly, Arsenal fans claiming the referee on Saturday produced the (first) red card to try and help Newcastle United compete against the Gunners in the Premier League. Even more bizarre was that this ‘clearly’ was to sabotage Arsenal ahead of their League Cup semi-final second leg at St James’ Park. That straight red meaning Myles Lewis-Skelly will get a three match ban (unless the red is overturned), which would include missing the Newcastle match. So suddenly this 18 year old is the new Lionel Messi (or Alexander Isak…), rather than a rookie Arsenal teenager who hasn’t shown a great deal yet. Surely if Michael Oliver was part of some great conspiracy, he would at least have had a go at getting one or more of the better Arsenal players banned for the second leg???

Michael Oliver is guilty

The truth is of course, that Michael Oliver is guilty of only one thing.

He is guilty of being an honest and very transparent referee who has integrity.

It is horrific the abuse Arsenal fans are giving and also comical, as I have seen them (Arsenal fans) putting up photos of Michael Oliver in a Newcastle shirt, as though it is some police drama and they have just unearthed the key piece of evidence.

These Arsenal fans/clowns seemingly totally unable to comprehend that it is simply further evidence of how honest and up front he is, Michael Oliver is a lifelong Newcastle United fan and proud of it. As he went through the ranks he always knew he could never referee a competitive Newcastle United match and when he made it to the highest level, then of course he declares himself as a Newcastle United fan and is registered as such by the authorities.

To all the Arsenal sleuths, this is why he never manages a Newcastle match, declaring you have ‘found’ a damning photo of him in a black and white shirt simply confirms what all normal people already knew and why he can’t referee NUFC matches.

“Aaaaah”, the Arsenal fans say, well if Michael Oliver is a self-confessed Newcastle fan, he then shouldn’t referee any matches involving their rivals.

Hmmmm.

If we went down this route, what Premier League match could Michael Oliver ever manage? Assuming that is, Newcastle United are one of those in the top tier. How do you decide who are one club’s rivals? For example, when the season kicks off, surely every club is your rival.

If Newcastle United fans (including Michael Oliver!) were asked at the start of this current season who are NUFC’s rivals, would they have said Bournemouth and Forest, rather than Spurs and Manchester United?

Speaking of which, we had all of this kind of Arsenal fans nonsense exactly two years ago, only that was Manchester United fans behaving so embarrassingly. They were claiming that as both Newcastle United and Man U were seemingly competing for top four, then Michael Oliver surely couldn’t referee any of their (Man U) matches…

As a Newcastle United fan, I am gutted we can never have Michael Oliver officiating any NUFC match, he is by a country mile the best Premier League referee. Instead, we have to put up with the collection of (mainly…) clowns that aren’t Michael Oliver.

If you accept the ‘logic’ of these Arsenal fans now and those Manchester United fans two years ago, then surely that would mean a ban on Michael Oliver for almost every match at this stage, for example, Fulham in tenth are only eight points off Newcastle United and top four. Even Man U are ‘only’ 12 points behind United!

Unless that is, the Manchester United fans think that they and their club are some kind of special case, able to demand something over and above what other clubs and their fans can expect. Surely not…

As I say, I think the only thing Michael Oliver can ever be justly accused of, is having been too honest.

Like so many others clearly do, maybe he should have simply hidden who he really supports, like so many other Premier League referees clearly do.

Do we really believe that all of these referees in the North West don’t support Manchester United or Manchester City? Do we honestly believe they only support this or that non-league/lower league club and don’t have any allegiance whatsoever to a top tier club? The same with those living on and around Merseyside, we used to regularly get Mike Dean for Liverpool matches and the Tranmere fan coming from just down the road. Can you really believe that somebody grows up in that area and has no kind of allegiance to either Liverpool or Everton?

The same with referees from London and down south generally, do you really believe that none/hardly any don’t support the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham or Spurs (or Liverpool/Man U!!), or at least have some kind of leaning towards one of them? As well as their local non-league club…

The thing is, it is in any budding referee’s interests to deny they support a Premier League club, especially one of the established elite, as that instantly disqualifies them from ever reffing their games / finals that team is involved in.

It would be so much healthier if more referees were honest like Michael Oliver, declare the affinity they have to whichever Premier League club, rather than insisting that it is only Ashington, or whichever other non-league/lower league, is their only true love.

As for the cowards who are making death threats and displaying other shocking abusive behaviour towards Michael Oliver and his family, here’s hoping the police can track a fair few of them down, expose who they are and put them in jail.