For some unexplained reason, Oliver had no Premier League appointment last weekend when the competition resumed after the international break – for the first time after Manchester City’s guilty verdict.
You might recall Arsenal against Manchester City in October 2023, when Oliver booked Mateo Kovacic for a challenge on Odegaard, but then seemingly not wanting to reduce the team to 10 men despite their activities refused to show Kovacic a second yellow for an assault on Declan Rice.
Even Howard Webb took exception to that display of refereeing saying Kavacic was “an extremely fortunate player to stay on the field of play” and that the second challenge should have brought another booking at the very least, although most commentators thought the second offence was actually worthy of a straight red.
In fact this referee is generally at the centre of some sort of controversy as for example when Wolverhampton placed Arsenal in January last year. On that occasion he sent off Lewis Skelly for serious foul play but the independent commission ruled it was a wrongful dismissal. However they still managed to fine Arsenal three times the normal amount for protesting about the dismissal on the pitch! As the old saying goes, you lose some and you lose some. And that despite the commission saying Oliver “had made an obvious error”. Lewis-Skelly was cleared of both endangering the player’s safety and using excessive force. But then totally insanely although the suspension was withdrawn, the fine still stood!!!! A perfect example of why we protest so constantly against PGMO.
Oliver is in fact well known in the refereeing trade for his cock-ups, often with Arsenal, as when he sent off Martinelli having booked him but not shown him the card, because he allowed play to continue, and then booked him again!!! If this man were operating equipment that could interfere with someone’s work, he’d be fired, but for football matches against Arsenal, no, he’s just allowed to carry on. Arsenal were refused the right to appeal. But then, what do you expect?
In fact this referee has more misdemeanors than most player against his name. Kicking the ball back to the place the foul was committed, seeing a sub shout to a player… each “offence” gets a card and it just goes on and on, so that in effect the game opens with us 2-0 down before we start.
He also works in the league that is financed by Manchester City’s sponsors – whoever the courts finally decide they are. But of course this is the Premier League and we know that lodging a complaint is liable to bring more problems for the complainant rather than the club or player who has done something wrong.
So the club stays quiet, the media is complicit, and we just point out what we see.