Arsenal host Manchester City in the Premier League at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.
City take on Napoli in the Champions League on Thursday night, over 48 hours after Arsenal beat Athletic Club in Bilbao.
This quirk in the fixture list should give Mikel Arteta’s team a significant advantage regarding the physical state of the players, although this is about as far as the Spaniard’s enthusiasm for outside factors will go heading into this clash.
The Premier League have announced something that will not excite the Gunners manager.
Premier League appoint Stuart Attwell as referee for Arsenal vs Manchester City
Arsenal have been at the forefront of a number of contentious refereeing decisions in the last 12 months.
The Gunners saw six players dismissed in the Premier League last term, two of whom were red-carded for ‘delaying the restart’, a rule that was seemingly not enforced on many other occasions throughout the season.
Meanwhile, Myles Lewis-Skelly’s sending off against Wolves was overturned in the week after the match as it was deemed a clear and obvious error from the officials.
While Arsenal’s matches have been relatively controversy-free so far this campaign, the North Londoners’ games against City tend to evoke drama.
Stuart Attwell has been appointed as the referee for the showdown on Sunday, and he’ll be supported by Constantine Hatzidakis and Nick Hopton.
The Premier League have also appointed Jarred Gillett as the Video Assistant Referee for the clash, with Craig Pawson the designated fourth official.
| Attwell’s record refereeing Arsenal matches | |||
| Matches | Arsenal wins | Draws | Arsenal defeats |
| 21 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
Stuart Attwell awarded Anthony Gordon’s controversial goal against Arsenal in November 2023
Attwell will oversee Arsenal’s game against City, much to the dismay of Arteta, who once described an incident the referee was involved in as a ‘disgrace’.
Back in November 2023, in a close game between Newcastle and the Gunners at St. James’ Park, Anthony Gordon scored the only goal to give the Magpies three points in the north-east.
The winger bundled the ball over the line in the second half, after a series of contentious incidents in the build-up to the match-winner.
Firstly, Joe Willock narrowly kept the ball in play before crossing it to Gordon. There was inconclusive evidence to show whether it had gone out or not, but it looked as though it had done with the naked eye.
Joelinton then appeared to shove Gabriel Magalhaes in the back as the cross came in, whilst the Brazilian defender was in the air and about to head away, with this contact preventing him from doing so.
There was then a question of whether it hit Joelinton’s hand as the ball came down, while Gordon was also potentially in an offside position.
None of these potential infringements were flagged up by referee Attwell, despite watching the incident multiple times on VAR.
“I have to be here now to say it is not acceptable,” Arteta told Sky Sports after the game.
“We didn’t deserve to lose the match. We lose the match because of the clear and obvious decisions. It’s embarrassing. A disgrace. That’s what it is – a disgrace.
“You cannot imagine the amount of messages I got saying this cannot continue. I am wasting my time. We are wasting our time. I don’t want to be in the hands of people.”
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