The Premier League have confirmed their match official appointments for the upcoming round of fixtures, including Arsenal’s game against Brentford.
After Arsenal’s hectic seven-day spell involving wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich and a draw with Chelsea, the games aren’t going to stop coming this week.
The Gunners are set to face Brentford in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, and the match officials for the contest have been confirmed by the Premier League.
Tony Harrington will referee, assisted by Steve Meredith and Sian Massey-Ellis. Sam Allison will be the fourth official, with James Bell on VAR and Blake Antrobus as the assistant VAR.
It’s somewhat of an understatement to suggest that Harrington has more experience refereeing Brentford than Arsenal.
The referee has only taken on one Gunners game in the past, a 3-1 win for Arsenal at home to Southampton last season, compared to the 16 Brentford matches he’s officiated.
That’s largely because Brentford were so recently a Championship team, with 12 of those 16 matches taking place in England’s second tier. But Harrington has also refereed Wednesday’s visitors once in the FA Cup and three times since their Premier League promotion.
In some ways it’s nice not to have much of a history with a referee, with little controversy in the Arsenal-Southampton match. There were no penalties awarded, no red cards, and Southampton picked up all three yellows across the 90 minutes.
A repeat of that fixture this midweek would be very welcome for Arsenal fans.