The referee has been appointed for Sunday’s crunch game between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea, with both managers likely to be extremely frustrated.
Forest have improved their relationship with referees over the past 12 months, although the bar was pretty low to start with.
The Reds had a number of high-profile decisions go against them last season, with Forest being fined £750,000 for some harsh words after a 2-0 defeat to Everton.
Thankfully, this season the football has taken centre stage instead, with Forest still in with a chance of the Champions League going into the final day of the campaign.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Anthony Taylor named as referee for Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea
It’s quite remarkable that Taylor is still being let loose on Forest games after a number of poor performances overseeing the Reds.
Taylor was the man in charge of the game when the Reds lost 2-0 to Everton and received a big fine for their actions after the contest.
In that game, he denied the Reds three penalties, with VAR Stuart Attwell also failing to cover himself in glory during that game.
Earlier this season, Taylor was the fourth man who advised Rob Jones to send Morgan Gibbs-White off against Brighton, leading to Nuno Espirito Santo receiving a touchline ban.
MORE FOREST STORIES
Enzo Marseca has also had a number of situations where he’s slammed Taylor, and it looks highly unlikely that either head coach will be happy with this decision.
Anthony Taylor record vs Forest this season
The last time Forest were refereed by Taylor came in January when he oversaw a 3-2 win over Southampton in which he added 12 minutes of stoppage time and disallowed a goal to make the game 4-1 to Forest.
The only other Premier League game he actually refereed Forest was a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle in November when the Reds had no answer to the Magpies.
Hopefully, the football can take centre stage this Sunday and Taylor can drift into the background during an entertaining clash.
This does feel like a risky decision made by the PGMOL and it’s unlikely that Espirito Santo will be satisfied with this appointment.