Michael Oliver has long been regarded as one of England’s most experienced referees, but his career has not been without controversy. A recent statistic has added to the perception among some Arsenal fans that Oliver may have an agenda against their club.
Over the weekend, Oliver took charge of Arsenal’s match against Wolves and made headlines for sending off Myles Lewis-Skelly in a decision that left many scratching their heads. The young Arsenal player was shown a straight red card for a foul that most observers, including fans of rival teams, agreed warranted only a yellow card. The Gunners managed to secure the win despite being down to ten men, but the incident has reignited discussions about Oliver’s officiating when Arsenal are involved.
Having been a Premier League referee since 2010, Oliver is one of the most seasoned officials in the game, regularly trusted with high-stakes matches. Yet, Arsenal supporters have grown increasingly frustrated with his performances in their games, pointing to a series of questionable decisions over the years.
According to Give Me Sport, Arsenal have had Oliver as their referee in 55 matches, during which he has issued 97 yellow cards and 8 red cards against the Gunners. These figures make Arsenal the team he has penalised the most with red and yellow cards, which has not gone unnoticed by fans. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, many Arsenal supporters feel their team suffers disproportionately under his watch.
The decision to send off Lewis-Skelly has only added fuel to the fire. It’s not just Arsenal fans who are criticising the call; even neutrals and supporters of rival clubs have expressed their disbelief over the harshness of the punishment. For a team that has already been on the receiving end of debatable officiating decisions in recent seasons, this latest incident feels like part of a worrying pattern.
Oliver’s status as one of the Premier League’s top referees is undisputed, but incidents like these raise questions about whether he should continue officiating Arsenal’s games for the foreseeable future. While it might be unfair to suggest outright bias, the numbers and decisions speak for themselves. For now, perhaps it would be wise for the league to consider assigning a different official to oversee Arsenal matches if only to restore a sense of fairness and balance in the eyes of the fans.
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
I don’t get it. Just call it what it is. He is unashamedly biased. The only referee in the game’s history to give two yellow cards in one move. A more sensible referee would have given a warning and one yellow card.
He gave a yellow card for Trousaard kicking the ball away when a city player did exactly the same thing earlier in the same game and he gave nothing.
We were told that he did not want to affect a game so he did not send Doku off for a karate kick in a Liverpool player’s chest, but he continues to affect the game when it is Arsenal.
No doubt he hates the club and referees with his emotion and not professionalism. he should actually be banned, but his hatred is more against Arsenal than others so few people care and don’t call him out for suspension.
Surely, it’s a conflict of interest for him to accept money to referee a game by man city owners.
I do not thing that any Club is in position to demand that certain individuals should not arbiter theirs games. But certainly the guys who designate the referees should apply their own criterium when doing their jobs and confront the situation to avoid another conflict. They do not have to explain how they do theirs job.
Arsenal isn’t even a dirty team they are truly one of the cleanest sides but for some reason pick up more cards making fewer fouls than other sides. It was the same under Wenger The quicker they hire Southern refs the better or better still scour the foreign market for the best refs overall and open up the scope when deciding what to do about VAR
I think a serious question has to be raised as to why when refs like oliver hand out cards to Arsenal they cling (tenuously, to put it politely) to “letter of the law”, but when they ignore red cards or 2nd yellows (or even first yellows) for other teams it’s apparently (according to web), that the ref “didn’t want to ruin the game”.
So it seems clear that sending off Arsenal players doesn’t “ruin the game”, in their eyes it “improves it”, i.e. their favourites get better chances to beat Arsenal.
I think too many people are trying to be even-handed and diplomatic.
It’s past that, it’s time to be blunt: the pgmol are as corrupt as it gets.
My advice to the PGMLO is to stop the ref from officiating Arsenal’s game again as any further error from him will lead to more uproar which could further threaten his life. They should know that it has reached an unbearable stage and fans allover are saying the same thing.
Threats to life is totally condemned, however, what will lead to that should be properly managed which the PGMLO are not doing. Indirectly telling arsenal that they won’t change the stand if they appeal is wrong, not being objective, and intentionally biased.
The one hope is that the review board will not be made up of any pgmol chops, it’s apparently ex-players etc.
The problem will be if those ex-players are carragher, neville and owen – all sky pgmol sycophants
It’s good to see Miles’ card rescinded.