Man City’s trip to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea in the Premier League this weekend will be refereed by Michael Oliver.
City currently sit in fifth place in the Premier League after their 0-0 draw against Southampton at the weekend, while Chelsea are currently top of the league on alphabetical order ahead of Liverpool after identical results with the Merseyside club.
Pep Guardiola will be looking to get back to winning ways and will need to overcome the psychological shield that Thomas Tuchel has created for the London side, who beat City three times at the back end of last season to knock them out of the FA Cup and also beat them in the Champions League final.
The man in the middle will be Oliver, who had last weekend off from duty. He last refereed a game on September 11th, as Arsenal secured a 1-0 win over Norwich at the Emirates Stadium.
He has not refereed either of City or Chelsea yet this season but last season was in charge of Guardiola’s side’s 5-0 win over Everton in May, where he dished out two yellow cards.
Oliver has refereed Tuchel’s Chelsea side twice, once during their impressive 4-1 win over Crystal Palace in April and also in their FA Cup final defeat to Leicester the following month at Wembley.
His assistants for the game will be Stuart Burt and Simon Bennett, while the appointed fourth official is Robert Jones. VAR will be overseen by Darren England and he will be assisted by Dan Robathan.
City travel to Stamford Bridge for the lunch-time kick-off as they look to ensure the gap between them and the other top teams doesn’t get too big, too early.
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