Rio Ferdinand and Martin Keown have agreed that it was 'harsh' for Michael Oliver to brandish two yellow cards in quick succession to Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli.
The Brazilian is now the third Arsenal player to have received a Premier League red card this season as he controversially joined teammates Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Magalhães in achieving the unwanted accolade.
However, unlike the other two, this pair of decisions from Oliver came under huge scrutiny from disgruntled Arsenal fans on Thursday night who believed the decision was not right - along with manager Mikel Arteta.
"Very worrying. To be fair," manager Mikel Arteta said in his post match press conference.
"It’s the first time I’ve seen a red card like this in 18 years that I’ve been in this league.
"I think you have to be pretty willing to give a red card in that situation. But still it happened. We know that playing with 10 men in this league you’re not going to get points, enough points, the points that we want and we have to stop it.
"But to be fair it’s difficult to find more arguments and more ways to transmit that to the players. Everybody says it’s the most disciplined group they’ve seen in the last 15 years, but still we are getting red cards for other things."
The sending off after 69 minutes resulted in two apparent fouls on Wolves attackers Daniel Podence and Chiquinho, decisions that have been heavily scrutinised by former defenders Ferdinand and Keown, who have both agreed that the referee was 'harsh' on the 20-year-old.
The former of the pair delivered his view from the BT Sport studio: "He wants to be in the news, the ref doesn’t he.
"So harsh, I get the first one you can go 'yeah that can be a booking slowing play down', but the second one especially in the same sequence, phases of play, it doesn’t warrant another yellow. No chance."
Keown then went on to add that despite it being in the laws of the game, Oliver's stance in this situation was too 'tough' on Martinelli.
"It's within Michael Oliver's gift to do that, it's within the laws of the game, but you very rarely see that," the former Arsenal defender told BT Sport.
"Whether he got fed up with a succession of free-kicks... I just felt as if it was quite tough on the player and they're going to be without him now for a really important game.
"But, they saw it through, and it didn't really matter on the night. Nonetheless, I thought it was pedantic from the referee. Referees up and down the country will have a different opinion. He can do that, and it's a warning to other players about those situations.
"In isolation, I think they are yellows, but I think he should have stopped the game then and gave him a yellow. I know he's trying to play an advantage. I just feel there's a moral issue with what the referee has done. It doesn't feel sporting, you may have a difference of opinion, I've not seen it many times. Maybe it's going to be a theme now where we are going to see this now up and down the country."
