Michael Oliver will be back refereeing Premier League football this weekend after not being selected for any games during the mid-week set of fixtures.
Having been at the centre of several controversial incidents this season, Oliver was seemingly given time off with the last game he officiated being France's 2-0 Nations League win over Croatia during the March international break.
Prior to that, there have been three games in which red cards were brandished with all of those resulting in big debates. The most recent example came in Crystal Palace's FA Cup victory over Millwall where Oliver deemed Liam Roberts' high boot on Jean-Phillipe Mateta, which required him to have 25 stitches, as not dangerous play.
VAR later intervened however and the Millwall goalkeeper was ultimately sent off. Just a few weeks before that, Oliver showed no hesitation in dismissing Myles Lewis-Skelly for what he perceived as a reckless challenge during the 1-0 win over Wolves, but that call was retrospectively overturned.
In between those two incidents, Oliver took charge of the Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park which ended in controversial circumstances as he showed three red cards after the final whistle.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot was the recipient of one while Curtis Jones and Everton's Abdoulaye Doucoure also had to serve bans after inciting a post-match brawl.
With Oliver having endured a rather chaotic few months, it somewhat made sense for him to sit out gameweek 30 but he will be back and busy this weekend. As confirmed on the Premier League's official website, he will lead VAR for Aston Villa's clash against Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.
The following day, he will have the whistle for Chelsea's trip the Gtech Community Stadium to play Brentford with Lee Betts and Dan Cook as his assistants.
As for Arsenal, Darren England will referee their clash with Everton at Goodison Park while Stuart Atwell will be at Stockley Park. The latter's biggest controversy this season came during the Tottenham's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg win against Liverpool and Tottenham when he did not send off eventual goal-scorer Lucas Bergvall.
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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