Riccardo Calafiori criticises Michael Oliver stealing the spotlight

Riccardo Calafiori has argued that a referee’s job should be to avoid the spotlight and let players play, following Michael Oliver’s dramatics on Sunday.

Michael Oliver made himself the story by sending off Leandro Trossard during Arsenal’s match against Manchester City on Sunday, giving the forward a second yellow card for delaying the restart.

Oliver had previously ignored Jeremy Doku kicking the ball away to delay the restart, and he’d also ignored Dominik Szoboszlai doing the same thing for Liverpool the previous week.

Yet Oliver spoiled an entertaining contest by solely punishing Trossard, turning the remainder of the match into City’s 11-man attack against Arsenal’s 10-man defence.

After the game, Calafiori complained that there was no need for Oliver to turn the attention to his refereeing.

“Referees have to do their job to keep the game good to watch,” Calafiori suggested to Sky Sports. “In this action, they don’t have to put themselves (in the spotlight) too much.

“Come on, you have to do your job. No more. Let the guys play.”

The comments are very similar to those made by Howard Webb last year. Michael Oliver (him again) had failed to send off Mateo Kovacic for two potential red-card offences against Arsenal, and Webb suggested the referee didn’t want to spoil the game.

“He doesn’t want to have a negative impact on the game by overreacting to something,” Webb said of the decision.

“And sometimes players will be on a yellow card and then there’ll be pressure to show a second one. Pressure will come from the players on the field.”

Unfortunately, Oliver had no problem buckling to that pressure on this occasion.