Man United fans won't be happy with official Premier League decision ahead of clash against Chelsea
Man United welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford on Saturday evening, looking to get back to winning ways.
Ruben Amorim finds himself under considerable pressure, with reports suggesting that he has just three more games to save his job at Manchester United. The first of those comes on Saturday as the Red Devils welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils come off a 3-0 defeat to rivals Manchester City last weekend, whereas Chelsea also come off a defeat as they lost 3-1 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. However, it’s going to be a tough game for United as the Blues remain unbeaten in the Premier League.
Amorim will need everything to go right for his United side on Saturday if they are to come away with a positive result. With that in mind, United fans won’t be happy with the referee appointment the Premier League has made ahead of kick-off.
Premier League appoint Peter Bankes as United vs Chelsea referee
The game kicks off on Saturday, 20 September at 5.30 pm at Old Trafford, and it will be officiated by Peter Bankes. The decision has been made to appoint Bankes for the United game and it will be the first game that Bankes has taken charge of for either United or Chelsea so far this season.
He has refereed four Premier League games so far, showing 18 yellow cards and awarding two penalties. His last game was a South Coast derby between Bournemouth and Brighton in which he handed four yellow cards to each team, and a penalty to the Seagulls.
Bankes’ assistants will be Eddie Smart and Blake Antrobus, with Tom Kirk as the fourth official. The VAR will be Craig Pawson, with Adrian Holmes as his assistant for reviewing on-field decisions.
Man United won’t be happy about Bankes’ appointment
The reason why United fans may not be best pleased with the decision is that there have been previous incidents where Bankes has made a controversial decision against United. Amorim will hope the same doesn’t happen this weekend.
Firstly, going back to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time as United boss, Bankes made two goal-deciding decisions, both of which went to Sheffield United in a 2-1 defeat for the Red Devils in 2021.
Firstly, he didn’t give a foul on goalkeeper David De Gea in the lead-up to the Blades’ first goal, and then he ruled out an Anthony Martial goal for what Solskjaer believed was no foul. He said to TNT Sports at the time: “It’s two mistakes by the referee.”
More recently, Bankes also failed to call a foul during last season’s game between United and Brighton when Solly March was seen to grab the neck of Alejandro Garnacho right in front of the referee.
He didn’t deem it as excessive force, and so didn’t feel at liberty to issue March with the red card, much to Man United’s frustration. Brighton ended up winning 3-1 in that game.