Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has pointed to the cancellation of Bruno Fernandes’ red card at Manchester United earlier this season to explain why he is confident Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card will be overturned .
The 18-year-old left-back was sent off in the first half Arsenal win by 1-0 over Wolverhampton Wanderers for what referee Michael Oliver deemed it to be “serious foul play”.
Arteta strongly disagree with the decision and was adamant that the red card would be overturned, citing Fernandes’ dismissal against Tottenham Hotspur in October. The United captain was shown a straight red card after a high challenge on James Maddison, but replays later revealed that Fernandes had slipped before accidentally colliding with his opponent.
united won his appeal and Fernandes had his three-game ban erased.
When asked about Arsenal’s potential appeal, Arteta He said: “Hopefully we don’t have to, and if we have to, it happened and it’s a very good precedent for what happened with Bruno (Fernandes) this season as well.
“Okay, we were in a position that we shouldn’t be in, but at least we’ll be in a position that we should be in for the next few weeks and allow our players to keep turning up.”
Fernandes’ saving grace was that he lost his footing before challenging Maddison. Lewis-Skelly deliberately tripped Matt Doherty to stop a Wolves counter-attack and planted his studs on the defender’s ankle and top of his foot.
If Lewis-Skelly’s ban is upheld, he will be banned for three domestic games, ruling him out of next weekend’s big league clash with Manchester City and the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle United.
“We can’t really change what happened today,” sighed Arteta. “Hopefully it’s fair to the team and to the player and to everybody what happens in the next few weeks.”
