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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Jonathan Gorrie

Michael Oliver sending Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli off a ‘moral issue’, says Martin Keown

Martin Keown believes there was a “moral issue” with Michael Oliver’s decision to send Gabriel Martinelli off during Arsenal’s tight win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday night.

The Brazilian was booked twice in quick succession for fouls on Daniel Podence and Chiquinho in the second-half in fairly bizarre scenes.

After Oliver had played an advantage for the first foul, he produced two yellows within seconds of each other to condemn Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal to yet another red card.

Such is the rarity of the decision, debate is likely to continue as to how strictly the law should be applied.

“I think just there’s a moral issue with what the referee has done,” said Keown on BT Sport.

“It doesn’t feel sporting. You [to Joleon Lescott] have a different opinion, I’ve not seen it too many times. Maybe it’s going to be a theme, maybe we’re going to see this now up and down the country.

“I’ve asked the producers to tell me and there’s only really one or two of these incidents that have happened.”

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