Premier League referee Jarred Gillett will be back in the middle this weekend, despite David Moyes claiming he 'shouldn’t be near football'.
The Australian official was caught up in the middle of a VAR storm last weekend, with a litany of errors across the 10 top-flight fixtures. Gillett was the video referee during Chelsea ’s 2-1 victory over West Ham at Stamford Bridge.
The Hammers thought they had scored a late equaliser when Maxwel Cornet fired home following an Edouard Mendy mistake. However, despite initially awarding the goal, on-field ref Andrew Madley was told to check the pitchside monitor for an alleged foul on the Blues keeper by Jarrod Bowen.
And although replays appeared to show Bowen hadn’t fouled Mendy, the West Ham forward was penalised leaving boss David Moyes incensed. But Gillett will be back in action this weekend after being confirmed as the referee for Aston Villa’s trip to Leicester City.
Dedicated VAR Lee Mason hasn’t been so fortunate however, with his error during Newcastle ’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace seeing him left off the upcoming weekend appointment list. Mason was at Stockley Park and informed Michael Sailsbury that the Toon winner should be ruled out for a foul on Palace stopper Vicente Guaita - despite replays clearly showing Joe Willock had been pushed into the Spaniard.
Referees’ body, The Professional Game Match Officials’ Board (PGMOL) are said to be open to an investigation from the Premier League and will use the outcome to continue developing match officials moving forward.
That is likely to please Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley having suggested errors against the club have become an unwanted “consistent theme” of the fledgling campaign.
She said: "I had a sleepless night.. We should have won, I hated the VAR decision. That’s something we’re dealing with — it seems to be a consistent theme of the last few games.
“But we are dealing with that, talking to officials and we're trying to get something that we think will work going forward."
Moyes was less diplomatic in his review of the weekend’s events, going as far to say rather than being at The King Power Stadium this weekend, he “probably shouldn’t be near” a game.
“If you’re saying today that the referee’s mistake was corrected by VAR, I’m saying I do not see that in a million years,” he explained in his post-match press conference. “And I’m actually more embarrassed for the guy who did the VAR than I am even for the referee.
“Because that’s telling me it’s someone who doesn’t understand football and probably shouldn’t be near it, if they think that was enough to send the referee to the screen.”
