A lot has been said and made of Arsenal’s lack of a real and true striker’s connection to the Gunners flawed title chase despite being just six points off league leaders, Liverpool.
The Reds have a game in hand and could stretch their lead to nine points should they bag a win in their outstanding match.
With 15 games left to play, trailing by nine points (possibly) shouldn’t rule out Arsenal from the title contention; after all, Manchester United recovered from a 10 point deficit to beat Newcastle United to the EPL title under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Even worse, football pundits still see Manchester City as a team with better odds to win the title should Liverpool collapse than Arsenal in spite of Pep Guardiola’s team’s challenges.
Michael Oliver looks on whilst putting the red and yellow cards in his pocket during Premier League match (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
However, the challenge of not having a striker wasn’t a problem for Arsenal over the weekend since Wolverhampton Wanderers didn’t have the defensive quality to pull off a frustrating draw like Everton did against the Gunners but ended up losing courtesy Riccardo Calafiori’s strike.
Coming up against a team that is defensively good like Newcastle had Arsenal’s shortcomings up front resurface in the first leg of the Carabao Cup that ended in a loss and put Arsenal in position to miss out on another title.
Bagging a close win in very controversial circumstances-more on that later-should ideally underline Arsenal’s title credentials but as things stand, morale on Arsenal as potential title winners is quite low.
The Gunners play against Man City next in the league and looking at City’s 3-1 win over Chelsea despite the unfavourable odds towards Pep Guardiola’s team-came off a loss to PSG in the Champions League and playing against a younger, quicker Chelsea team that wasn’t involved in a midweek tie– many believe a loss is on the cards and the title is Liverpool’s to lose.
The biggest controversy of the past round of games came from the Wolves-Arsenal game through referee Michael Oliver’s dismissal of Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly though the biggest head scratching moment should have been Illiman Ndiaye getting booked for flapping his arms like a Brighton and Hove Seagull to celebrate his goal.
Jamie Vardy didn’t get any punishment for mocking Tottenham Hotspurs lack of an EPL title while celebrating his goal in a 2-1 win over Spurs it must be noted.
Youngster Lewis-Skelly caught Matt Doherty at the ankle with a “tactical foul” several yards from Arsenal’s goal sparking several debates over Oliver’s decision but the experienced league official’s call was right even aside the 19 year old’s tackle checking all the boxes to warrant a red card and dismissal.
Tactical fouls have become part of Mikel Arteta’s Dark Arts collection he has used through his players so well to finish second in the league in back to back years and others do same.
The reigning Ballon D’Or winner, Rodri, has carved out a reputation for delivering timely fouls to blunt opposing teams counter attacks by dragging the player down or stopping the player via a jersey tug to earn yellow cards but not red cards.
Giorgio Chiellini’s tug of Bukayo Saka’s jersey in the 2020 Euros Final is a classic example but in Lewis-Skelly’s case, the Arsenal defender caught Doherty by the ankle with his studs while his foot was off the ground on top of it being a dangerous play altogether.
Take a look at this angle. Lewis-Skelly’s tackle deserves a red card or not? Over to you Arsenal fans. pic.twitter.com/iVnDJp1ytm
— U P B L O W N A R T I S T E (@GDLpeeid) January 26, 2025
Beyond all these checkers that could be overlooked by a game official based on sheer discretion, Lewis-Skelly’s was a special case that had to be handled differently mainly due to the competing teams.
Wolves for starters, have been at the wrong end of very bad officiating decisions; VAR or not. It is hard to argue against the notion that Gary O’Neil would still have been Wolves manager had the team been given just a couple of right calls. After several complaints, it is hard to accept that game officials won’t be extra careful when applying the law to Wolverhampton and per the rules, Lewis-Skelly’s challenge broke quite a handful of them.
While Doherty wasn’t in a goal scoring situation and wasn’t bearing down on goal directly, the counter evidence based on the tackle delivered, was overwhelming to warrant a dismissal. Had Arsenal beaten Wolves with Lewis-Skelly on the pitch after making that tackle, Wolves would have definitely run back to the media to complain once again of being cheated.
On the flip side, Arsenal also fall victim to this “officiating reputation” situation because the Gunners have complained so much about officiating that game officials would always want to apply the rules down to a tee. There is enough evidence in this shot taken from the game.
🎥 Leandro Trossard after Michael Oliver booked Joao Gomes for time-wasting: “He did the same to me!” 😅🟨pic.twitter.com/Z7pqWF004W
— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) January 26, 2025
Arsenal are a big club with a massive following and dicey referee decisions are often overblown to the point that even after the win over Wolves, Michael Oliver has been abused online so much to prompt the British Police to launch an investigation.
Fans were wrong to attack Oliver even when the evidence was overwhelming just as it was in the disallowed goal against Aston Villa due to Kai Havertz’s handball.
Whether game decisions are delivered via VAR or not, the human element can’t be ruled out and related “circumstances” like the ones stemming from games involving Wolves and Arsenal over recent campaigns have influenced the way referees officiate games.
A cynical tackle like the one Myles Lewis-Skelly delivered on Matt Doherty was a yellow card offence but delivering the tackle the way the Arsenal defender did, warranted a dismissal. On top of the environment Arsenal have built around themselves, Michael Oliver’s call was the right one no matter how controversial it comes across and shouldn’t be overturned.
