Jon Moss will take charge of Arsenal’s Premier League game against Aston Villa this weekend, following on from Anthony Taylor’s appointment last week in the ‘best league in the world’.
A number of years ago, Jon Moss was not fit to be a top-level referee – neither in the way he handled games nor in his actual body shape. Yet, here we are in the 19/20 season and he’s still being given matches in the Premier League.
Despite this being gameweek six, Moss has only taken charge of three matches this season so far (issuing 10 yellows and one red), so let’s hope they’re starting to phase the 48-year-old out.
Yes, he’s only 48.
Last season, Moss took charge of six Arsenal games:
- Arsenal 2 Everton 0
- Arsenal 0 Tottenham 2
- West Ham 1 Arsenal 0
- Huddersfield 1 Arsenal 2
- Arsenal 2 Man United 0
- Arsenal 2 Crystal Palace 3
He issued 23 yellows and no reds, distributed as follows:
To Arsenal – 14
To opposition – 9
He only took charge of one Villa game – a 2-2 draw at home with Brentford that saw three yellows going to the home side and two to the visitors.
Back in 2016, I wrote about how Jon Moss mixed up the rules to send Granit Xhaka off incorrectly, a red that we’ve never seen issued to another player since.
We usually win under Moss when you look back over the years, that’s never been the issue. The problem is he’s an idiot that one of his own colleagues said wasn’t fit to referee.
“Moss is a referee who is a consistent bottom of the table performer. Every time he referees it’s a bit of a disaster, Keith Hackett once said.
“For me he either needs a rest or he needs taking off the panel. We’ve got professional referees, so let’s be professional. He’s not up to the standard in my opinion.”
That was almost four years ago and he’s still going…
Arsenal v Aston Villa officials
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Assistants: Harry Lennard, Eddie Smart
Fourth official: Keith Stroud
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Andy Garratt
