Ian Wright has slammed Premier League referees after Myles Lewis-Skelly was controversially shown a red card during Arsenal's 1-0 win over Wolves. Shortly before half-time, the 18-year-old was given his marching orders for a seemingly harmless – but 'professional' – foul to stop Wolves from launching a counter-attack.

Michael Oliver raised eyebrows when he sent Lewis-Skelly for an early bath. The Video Assistant Referee reviewed the incident and, in no more than 10 seconds, Darren England confirmed his colleague's decision, deeming the teenager's challenge to have been 'serious foul play'.

Fortunately for Lewis-Skelly, the decision didn't stop Arsenal from securing three crucial points in the Premier League title race. With a quarter of an hour or so left on the clock, Riccardo Calafiori, who replaced Ethan Nwaneri at half-time, fired the Gunners ahead.

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After the game, Wright took to social media to vent his frustration with Premier League officials. In a video on Instagram, the Arsenal legend said: "Can I just say? It's a joke. Anyone that has ever played the game, and I'm not even talking Premier League - I'm talking five-a-side, Sunday league - knows it's never a red.

"Yellow card, nobody says a word. Time and time again, this level of refereeing, the decisions in the Premier League, the inconsistency, the excuses, the apologies - all of [the referees] just [want to be the] centre of attention, for me. We can't criticise too hard because where are the refs going to come from? Where are we going to get them?

"But, I'm sorry. This is the highest level of football and we do not have the highest level of referees. When will the Premier League bring the best refs into the so-called best league in the world? Because, at the moment, with this level of referees, we're nowhere near it. Nowhere near it."

Captioning the post, Wright said: "Whether you've played Sunday League or 5 a side or Premier League level you know it's just never ever a red card. They are going to try and find all sorts of angles and slow mo's to try and justify the incompetency and inconsistency of PGMOL. Because what's the point of the VAR if the ref did get it wrong but they won't correct him???????"

Speaking to reporters after the Wolves game, Arteta was questioned about the red card. The Arsenal boss said: "I think it's that obvious that we don't need any comments today. Hopefully the right thing will happen after today."

When asked if the club will appeal the decision, Arteta replied: "Well hopefully we don't need to. If we have to, it's a really good precedent with what happened with Bruno [Fernandes vs Tottenham] this season. Hopefully.

"Ok we were in a position we shouldn't have been in, at least let's be in a position that we should be in for the next few weeks and allow our player to continue to do his job."

On overcoming such adversity, Arteta said: "That's what they show us every single day. This season has been very special for many circumstances, a lot of them very challenging. Today we had two again with Mikel [Merino] and Martin [Odegaard] out.

"Still we come here, we have to face a very difficult opponent fighting for relegation and we have another issue during the match, but still we go about it and that's what I love about them. That's why our supporters as well celebrated and they were behind them because they can feel that."