PL appoint City-Arsenal ref who made big call against Gunners last season

Michael Oliver will referee Arsenal’s visit to Manchester City this weekend, bringing to mind his controversial calls in last season’s fixture at the Emirates Stadium.

The Premier League have confirmed their appointments of match officials for the upcoming round of fixtures this weekend, including Arsenal’s trip away to Manchester City on Sunday.

Michael Oliver will referee the match, assisted by Stuart Burt and Dan Cook. Andy Madley will act as the fourth official, with John Brooks on VAR assisted by Richard West.

It’s no real surprise Oliver has been given the game, as he has no ties to either club and he’s generally regarded as one of the Premier League’s top officials.

If you’ve got a game between the top-two clubs in the country for the last two seasons, you ideally want your best referee in charge of it.

Yet Oliver didn’t make any friends among Arsenal fans the last time he refereed a game between the two clubs, as he controversially opted not to send off Mateo Kovacic for a heavy challenge on Martin Odegaard’s ankle.

Howard Webb admitted afterwards that Kovacic was “extremely fortunate” not to be sent off. He added that he was confident that if Oliver had dismissed Kovacic, it would have been quickly confirmed by VAR.

Webb also suggested that Kovacic should have been shown a second yellow card for a later challenge on Declan Rice, but pointed out that VAR couldn’t intervene in that case.

In the end, Oliver’s decision was final in both cases, and Kovacic avoided being sent off for either incident.

Arsenal won the match anyway, with Gabriel Martinelli scoring via a late deflection to earn his team all three points. But that was in spite of Oliver’s mistakes.

We can only hope that there are no such controversial decisions to make on Sunday.