Chris Kavanagh will return to action in the Premier League this weekend after making a series of errors in Newcastle United’s FA Cup win at Aston Villa, but not as referee.
Chris Kavanagh will not referee a Premier League match for the second successive week following his heavily criticised refereeing display in Newcastle United’s FA Cup win at Aston Villa.
Kavanagh and his assistant, Nick Greenhalgh, were not appointed for a Premier League fixture last weekend after the pair made several notable errors during Newcastle’s 3-1 win at Villa Park.
This weekend sees Kavanagh return to action, but only as fourth official for Liverpool’s match at home to West Ham United.
Greenhalgh has not been appointed for a second successive week after failing to call offside for Aston Villa’s goal scored by Tammy Abraham. The linesman also didn’t intervene when Kavanagh awarded a free-kick to Newcastle for handball despite Lucas Digne clearly handling the ball inside the penalty area.
BBC pundit and former England international Wayne Rooney described the awarding of a free-kick rather than a penalty for Digne’s handball as ‘one of the worst’ decisions’ he’s ever seen.
Gary Beswick, the other linesman during the game, received no punishment as he ran the line for Nottingham Forest against Liverpool on Sunday. The match saw Liverpool grab a stoppage time winner, which was checked by VAR for offside.
Beswick is on assistant VAR duty for Burnley v Brentford on Saturday.
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Eddie Howe on decisions v Aston Villa
After the win, Eddie Howe was asked about the lack of VAR and the quality of officiating at Villa Park.
“Yeah, that was certainly a tough first half for us,” Howe said. “Obviously we got the benefit of replays on the bench and you can see what's right and what's wrong and we felt really agreed in that first period that every decision seemed like it was going against us.
“The officials don't make any decision on purpose, is what they think at the time, but without VAR I thought there was a lot of errors today.
“Once the decision is made and it seems like there was no way back, there's nothing you can do. You've got to move on quite quickly, although all through that half, it seemed like I was debating a referee decision. That's not me, I don't do that.
“But I felt that there were so many [decisions] going against us.”
Newcastle United match officials appointed
Newcastle also return to Premier League action this weekend as they look to bounce back from successive league defeats at St James’ Park.
Howe’s side host Everton on Saturday (3pm kick-off) with Stuart Attwell appointed as referee. He will be assisted by Constantine Hatzidakis and James Mainwaring with Dean Whitestone as fourth official.
Nick Hopton is on VAR duty, assisted by 2025 Carabao Cup final referee John Brooks.
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