Michael Oliver has been at the top of his game as an official for some while now, but two glaring mistakes he made during the Man City vs Arsenal game have been criticised by Stan Collymore.
There’s no room for any misinterpretation of the laws of the game when the eyes of the world are on matches such as the ‘Super Sunday’ clash last weekend.
In general terms, Oliver managed the game well enough, but one decision in particular really irked Man City and their supporters.
Michael Oliver made two glaring errors in the Man City vs Arsenal game
Leading through an Erling Haaland strike, Arsenal were allowed a way back into the game thanks to a quick free kick whilst City captain, Kyle Walker, was out of position.
“I think that when a captain is called out of position and has a discussion with a ref, it is absolutely right and proper to wait until he’s back in position before an opposition player can have the chance of taking a quick free-kick. Particularly, as in Kyle Walker’s case, if you’re a right back,” Collymore said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“It’s not as if he was just two or three yards away from the action when he was called over by Michael Oliver during the Arsenal game.
“It’s a really big talking point because we’re all clear on the new directive that only the captains can now approach the match officials.
“Walker was out of position when Arsenal took their free-kick, something the referee should’ve acknowledged – and which he already knew, to be perfectly honest.
“As long as a captain hasn’t been dragged way out of position, then the referee is well within his rights to signal a quick free-kick, but that isn’t what happened at the weekend.”
If City were aggrieved at that potential miscarriage of justice, Arsenal might be asking questions of Oliver and PGMOL in the aftermath of the home side’s late equaliser.
TV cameras picked up Erling Haaland throwing the ball at the back of Gabriel’s head, but no further action was taken.
“Sticking with Sunday’s big game, I did think that Erling Haaland throwing the ball at Gabriel Magalhaes was funny, but it was still ungentlemanly conduct – or unsportsmanlike behaviour if you prefer,” Collymore added.
What both incidents show is that even the best referees get it wrong sometimes, and if most in the game are judged and scrutinised by how well they do in certain situations, then surely for the continued health and impartiality of the game, referees and match officials need to be held accountable to the same standard.
