When the officials are announced for a game, most people only pay attention to who has been named as the man in the middle.

In this case, Arsenal will go to United and be refereed by Craig Pawson and you can read about you’re likely to get from him here.

We all breathed a massive sigh of relief. It wasn’t Mike Dean!

But there, sitting in the background, able to weasel his way into Pawson’s ear from the sidelines, he will be, for yes! Mike Dean will be the fourth official at Old Trafford.

It’s like he simply can’t keep away.

Pawson is a young and inexperienced ref, taking charge of his first Arsenal/United clash. I’d expect to see errors from him but nothing of the sort we get when Dean is in charge.

Now I expect much worse as Dean yields his influence.

Fun times.

Given his track record when it comes to Arsenal, it still amazes me he’s allowed to be anywhere near their games.