Mikel Arteta said he was “absolutely fuming” about Myles Lewis-Skelly‘s red card but praised his Arsenal team’s character in a 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday that boosted their Premier League title hopes.
Lewis-Skelly, 18, was controversially sent off in the 43rd minute at Molineux after a foul on Matt Doherty 30 yards from the hosts’ goal — which referee Michael Oliver deemed was violent conduct. VAR upheld the decision, leaving Arsenal battling with 10 players with the score still 0-0.
But the numbers were evened up in the 70th minute when Wolves midfielder João Gomes was given his marching orders, and four minutes later Arsenal substitute Riccardo Calafiori scored what was ultimately the only goal of the game.
It leaves Arsenal six points behind league leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand and thrashed Ipswich 4-1 on Saturday.
“It is that clear and I will leave it to you guys,” Arteta said about the Lewis-Skelly red card. “I am absolutely fuming. But I will leave it with you, it is that obvious that I don’t think my words are going to help.
“It’s that obvious, that maybe we don’t even need to [appeal].”
Asked about the significance of the victory for his injury-hit side, who were without captain Martin Ødegaard, Arteta added: “It’s incredible what the boys did again. The context that we were thrown into, it’s shows the character and the personality of the game. The courage and intelligence to play the way we want to was exceptional.
“The team are not going to stop. We are going to keep going. This team has got the spirit and will to fight against anything. They showed that again today.
“A lot of things happened today, more things happened. Yesterday we lost Mikel [Merino], we lost Martin this morning. We are still going. That is what I love about the team.”
Wolves boss Vitor Pereira, meanwhile, said on the Lewis-Skelly red: “To be honest, I didn’t see it very well because I was on the opposite side.”
