Anthony Taylor has been appointed as the official for Arsenal’s pivotal Premier League title clash at Manchester City this weekend.
However, it is the selection of Jarred Gillett on VAR for the weekend which will inevitably have supporters asking the same old questions from last year.
Gillet was in charge of Arsenal’s game against Aston Villa in which the Australian ruled out Kai Havertz’s last-minute equaliser for handball.
It was only the second defeat of the season for the club at the time and began a run through the festive period that saw the Gunners drop points to Liverpool, West Ham and Fulham before bouncing back in 2024 having won every league game so far this year to sit top of the table going into the weekend’s games.
The last-minute Havertz “goal” was not the only decision that Arsenal felt went against them. Douglas Luiz looked to have clearly fouled Gabriel Jesus in the box but Gillett deemed it not enough of a foul to call a penalty.
“That’s what I mean.” He added: “That’s my opinion, that’s all I can say.”
Arteta was serving a touchline ban at the time and sitting in the stands after picking up three yellow cards during the season.
The Spaniard’s relationship with officials has been brought into focus this season on several occasions.
However, fast—forward again to this coming weekend and the appointment of Gillett is sure to raise the claims of his connection to Liverpool, the team who will be wanting both Arsenal and Man City to draw and drop points this weekend to benefit their own title ambitions.
The alleged connection dates back to 2019 when Fox Sports commentator Brenton Speed revealed that Gillett is supposedly a Liverpool supporter.
“He told me about this a couple of months ago, said keep it under your hat because I’m not sure whether I’ll get the appointment,” Speed said on the Fox Football Podcast.
“That’ll be the last game he ever officiates at Anfield because he had to fill out a document when he agreed to join the referees’ board over there
“And you have to fill in the team you supported as a boy/man and he said it was Liverpool. So that means you’re taken off all their games, home or away.”
