Keith Hackett slams Craig Pawson’s ‘massive error’ on Lewis-Skelly Arsenal red
Keith Hackett has blasted Craig Pawson’s decision not to immediately send off Myles Lewis-Skelly as Arsenal lost 1-0 to West Ham on Saturday.
The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that the referee should not have required a second look at the incident after initially handing the defender a yellow card.
With Hammers’ attacker Mohammed Kudus pouncing on a mistake and through-in on goal, he pulled the player to the floor just inside his own half, with only one other Arsenal player behind the ball.
Jarrod Bowen had opened the scoring for Graham Potter’s side at the Emirates on 22 February, forcing the Gunners to chase the game if they were to keep the chase on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.
Myles Lewis-Skelly almost escapes further punishment
Skelly has experienced a sharp rise to fame under Mikel Arteta this season, but with under 20 minutes remaining on the clock, the youngster had made Arsenal’s job of a victory so much harder.
The 18-year-old has matured excellently, even feeling confident enough to mock Man City’s Erling Haaland during their 5-1 clash, but he looked out of depth in this moment.
Arsenal supporters would have breathed a sigh of relief as Pawson pulled out a yellow card for the incident, only for a VAR review to see them go down to 10 men for the remaining 20 minutes.
This comes just hours after Everton were denied a penalty by Andy Madley during a 2-2 draw with Man United, with Tony Bellew calling out the official as a “cheat”.
The Toffees’ veteran was initially awarded a spot-kick after being taken down in the box only for Madley to reverse the decision for Everton after a VAR review, a decision which Hackett exclusively told Football Insider was “farcical”.
The former PGMOL chief also believes the wrong decision was made for Illia Zabarnyi’s red card for Bournemouth against Wolves on Saturday (22 February).
| Premier League standings | Points |
| 1. Liverpool | 61 |
| 2. Arsenal | 53 |
| 3. Nottingham Forest | 47 |
Keith Hackett baffled as VAR gets this one right
Speaking to Football Insider about the decision not to immediately hand out a red card to Lewis-Skelly, the former referee said:
“Here is another massive error. This time Craig Pawson fails to issue a red card for a clear denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.
“Thankfully VAR intervened and the player was correctly issued with red.
“How did this referee not see that the offence fulfilled DOGSO? Should not have had to intervene.”
Arsenal have now fallen eight points behind Liverpool in the Premier League title chase.