Newcastle United latest news: The Premier League have revealed who will referee Saturday night’s match between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Anfield.
For supporters of a certain generation, the mere mention of Newcastle United, Liverpool and Anfield in the same sentence evokes memories of their famous pair of 4-3 games. For Newcastle United fans, there are very few good memories to cling onto in this fixture with the Magpies winless on their last 29 visits to the red half of Merseyside. Only once, in their very first season in the division, have they emerged from Anfield with three Premier League points.
Memories of last season’s Carabao Cup final, the summer long transfer saga involving Alexander Isak and a ferocious encounter at St James’ Park in August which ended in a 3-2 win for the visitors, despite them being 2-0 up and playing against ten men for the whole second half after Anthony Gordon’s red card, will loom large over Saturday’s game.
Eddie Howe’s side will be desperate to build on a good result in Paris in midweek when they face-off against Arne Slot’s reigning champions in what is yet another hotly-anticipated meeting between the two clubs.
Premier League reveal Liverpool v Newcastle United referee
As mentioned, Liverpool and Newcastle United played out a spicy encounter back in August, one that saw the Magpies play over a half’s worth of football with ten men. Simon Hooper was the referee that day who showed a red card to Gordon - and the Wiltshire whistler will again be the man in charge of this weekend’s game at Anfield.
This will be just the second time that Hooper has refereed Newcastle United this season. He has taken charge of three Liverpool matches in all, with his last coming at the end of December as the Reds defeated Wolves at Anfield.
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Liverpool fans, though, will remember Hooper as the man who refereed their controversial defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in 2023. In that game, Hooper sent off two Liverpool players whilst a major VAR error disallowed a Luis Diaz goal for offside, despite replays showing that the Colombian was onside before scoring.
Reflecting on that game later that season, then Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “I don’t want to make it the biggest subject but I cannot forget the [last] Tottenham game as well, it was just so strange.
“Only the other night was the first time since Tottenham that Simon Hooper was standing next to me for 90 minutes in a game I didn’t enjoy in the first place against Everton. I tried to get it out of my head and couldn’t.
“Now we play Tottenham and that was obviously not their fault that night, they just played the game, but I would like to win that game for 500 reasons and that we lost there in the way we lost is one of them.”
The Premier League have revealed that Hooper will be assisted by Adrian Holmes and Simon Long at Anfield with Sam Barrott acting as fourth official. Craig Pawson will be on VAR duty at Stockley Park and he will be assisted by Lee Betts.
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