Premier League make huge Anthony Taylor referee decision after Tottenham vs Chelsea controversy

By: Shawn
The Premier League has announced Anthony Taylor's selection as referee for Sunday's encounter between Tottenham and Chelsea. It has been little over two years since he last participated in a game between the two.

Anthony Taylor.
Getty Images

Taylor was the man in the midst during the teams' exciting and furious 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in August 2022. Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel were the managers on that day, which resulted in their infamous handshake fight at full-time.

Taylor and VAR chose not to penalise Tottenham defender Cristian Romero for yanking Marc Cucurella's hair in the final minute of the game, and Harry Kane scored from the resultant corner. Fans, players, and coaching staff all expressed their displeasure with the Altrincham native.

Blues fans quickly gathered over 160,000 signatures on a petition demanding that he never again be in charge of a game. Taylor has a history of disappointing Chelsea fans, including requests not to dismiss Harry Maguire in a Carabao Cup match in 2019, failing to red card Mateo Kovacic in the 2020 FA Cup final, and failing to punish Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez for a handball in the same game.

Taylor was also the referee for Chelsea's 2-0 victory against Tottenham in December 2019. He first called a foul on Paolo Gazzaniga for colliding with Marcos Alonso before reversing it and handing Chelsea a penalty. Spurs will argue that their team was unfairly handled on that day, after Son Heung-Min was sent off following a VAR review for kicking out at Antonio Rudiger.

Taylor has officiated two Chelsea games this season, a 2-0 loss to Manchester City on the first day and a 1-0 triumph away to Bournemouth. He also led Tottenham to a 4-0 victory over Everton in their second match of the season. However, that is his lone one on Ange Postecoglou's side.

In 12 games, he has issued 48 yellow cards and one red card, as well as five penalties, two of which went to Arsenal in Saturday's triumph against West Ham. Taylor also established a Premier League record for the most bookings in a single game, 14 in the aforementioned Bournemouth versus Chelsea match in mid-September.

Taylor refereed Chelsea four times last season, and the team went undefeated. He only appeared in two Spurs games, winning one and losing one.

Jarred Gillett, another PGMOL official who has left Chelsea supporters unimpressed, will be on VAR duty at Stockley Park. Mark Scholes is no longer serving as an assistant VAR.

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