Referee Michael Oliver had a busy afternoon during Manchester City’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, as the match featured three controversial incidents.

After Oliver summoned Man City captain Kyle Walker, the City players were incensed that he did not allow the right-back enough time to regain his position before Arsenal scored from a quickly taken free kick.

The game’s key moment came when Oliver sent off Arsenal forward Leandro Trossard just before half-time, showing him a second yellow card for delaying the restart.

Arsenal and their manager Mikel Arteta believe that Jeremy Doku should have been booked for a similar offence earlier in the match.

Keith Hackett reviews the major decisions from the match.

Doku yellow card

Sunday’s fixture at the Etihad was always going to be a tense affair, with emotions running high. England’s top referee, Michael Oliver, remained composed throughout, and his approach to the game seemed to be one of restraint, avoiding the issuance of unnecessary cards. However, this led to some questionable decisions.

This was likely why he showed leniency towards Jeremy Doku in the first half when the player kicked the ball away. Oliver may have believed that Doku was trying to pass the ball back to an Arsenal player, but the Manchester City winger was fortunate not to receive a yellow card—especially considering that Declan Rice was shown a second yellow card on 31st August for a similar offence against Brighton, where he was accused of delaying the restart.

Calafiori goal

It is easy to understand the frustration of the Manchester City players regarding the circumstances leading to Arsenal’s first goal, scored by Riccardo Calafiori.

Oliver had drawn Kyle Walker out of his right-back position to speak to him and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka in the centre of the pitch, after awarding a free kick to Arsenal, presumably to demand better behaviour from both players.

According to basic refereeing principles, if a player is removed from his position for a discussion, the referee must allow him the opportunity to return to his station before signalling for the game to restart. Oliver failed to do this, and the error was compounded further when the free kick was taken from the wrong position.

In such situations, Oliver would expect assistance from his linesmen, but clearly, they did not intervene.

Trossard red card

Arsenal’s players were furious when Leandro Trossard was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away after colliding with Bernardo Silva and delaying the restart. They pointed out that Doku had escaped a similar punishment earlier in the match for the same offence.

However, I believe Trossard left Oliver with little choice, as there seemed to be an element of time-wasting in his actions, which referees have been instructed to crack down on this season.

Overall, this was a challenging match, but I would have preferred to see Oliver use his experience alongside a bit more common sense—something that seems to be lacking in the current crop of match officials.