Manchester referee appointed to City-Arsenal clash

Manchester referee appointed to City-Arsenal clash

The Premier League have confirmed their team of match officials for Arsenal’s trip to Manchester City on Sunday.

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The Premier League have confirmed their team of match officials for this weekend’s potential title decider between Manchester City and Arsenal, with Anthony Taylor to referee the match.

Taylor will be assisted by Gary Beswick and Ian Hussin, with Paul Tierney acting as the fourth official.

John Brooks will be on VAR, with Stuart Burt acting as the assistant VAR for the fixture.

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There will obviously be some raised eyebrows about Taylor’s appointment to this game, given he’s from the Greater Manchester area.

Former Premier League referee Graham Scott reports for The Athletic that whilst Taylor lives within a few miles of both Manchester United and Manchester City, the referee’s personal allegiance is to his home-town club Altrincham.

According to Scott, Taylor has no allegiance to either City nor United. It’s also far from the first time he’s refereed a match between the two teams, taking on four previous clashes over the years.

Three of those were between Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta’s teams, with the fourth taking place in 2016 between Manuel Pellegrini and Arsene Wenger.

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Taylor’s most recent City-Arsenal match was the 0-0 draw at the Etihad Stadium in 2024, at a very similar point in the season. He showed a couple of yellow cards to Arsenal players for wasting time, but it was otherwise a relatively uncontroversial officiating display.