by Mikel Arteta has called on the Football Association to overturn teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly’s hugely controversial red card in the 1-0 win over Wolves.
Lewis-Skelly, 18, became the third youngest player to be dismissed in Premier League history when he received a straight red card from Michael Oliver in the first half for beating Matt Doherty in his own half of the field.
The decision was met with disbelief by pundits, with Alan Shearer calling it “one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a long time”.
Arteta said he was too “furious” to comment on this, but wants the decision to be overturned in the same way Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes was released following a red card against Tottenham earlier in the season.
“I’m absolutely furious but I’ll leave it to you,” he said. “I think it’s obvious that we don’t need any comment today and I hope the right thing happens.
“I hope we don’t need to (appeal the decision) and if we have to, there is a very good precedent, which also happened with Bruno this season.
“OK, we were in a position we shouldn’t be in, let’s at least be in a position we should be in for the next few weeks and allow this player to continue doing his job.”
The Gunners overcame adversity to win the match thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s 74th-minute goal, four minutes after the hosts had also been reduced to 10 men following Joao Gomes’ sending off.
And it kept their title hopes alive as they cling to the tails of Liverpool, six points behind after playing a game more.
“I am extremely proud of the players,” added the Spaniard. “I mean, you can talk about our courage, you can talk about spirit, but also intelligence, the way they handled the game emotionally, it was incredible, especially with what we had to deal with faced and what they felt about it.
“Everyone faced the situation. We went into the second half and the only message was to go there to win the game. That’s it.
“If anyone doesn’t feel it, don’t go there and he certainly did it in a very convincing way.”
For Wolves, who had chances to lead when they had a man advantage, it was a fourth defeat in a row and they remain outside the bottom three on goal difference alone.
Boss Vitor Pereira, whose side have lost the last four matches, says Gomes’ 70th-minute red card for two yellow cards was the game’s defining moment.
“The moment he received the second yellow card was the moment of the match because we created two clear chances to score the first goal.
“After Arsenal, we have quality and it was difficult.
“Joao is a player who gives 100% in every match for the team, he is a team player, he wants to help.
“He’s emotional, we spoke at half-time and I said, ‘You’ve got a yellow card and you need to be calm.’ He said, ‘Okay. I’ll control him.’
“I don’t want to talk about the yellow card, I have to accept it.
“But we played against Arsenal playing our game. It’s the kind of game where the result doesn’t reflect what happened on the pitch.
