Everton get Anthony Taylor again

Under-fire referee Anthony Taylor has been handed yet another Everton game.

Taylor was most recently in charge for last week’s Manchester City versus Chelsea game where he failed to send off David Luiz, and then completely lost control of the game at the end when both sets of players were involved with running battles on the sidelines. He eventually sent off Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho, but not before we saw a scrum of players, staff and coaches that disrupted play for a few minutes.

However, his appointment might not be a bad thing either, considering the only win Everton have had in the last nine games was in the game he officiated against West Ham United at Goodison Park.

Previously though, this very referee has been responsible for some fiascoes involving Everton.

In December 2012, he disallowed a perfectly good goal by Leon Osman, and then inexplicably sent off Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson among a bunch of other very odd decisions. And then again in March earlier this year, when he sent off Kevin Mirallas as the Hammers came from behind to win. Sandwiched in between was a surprisingly uneventful 1-1 draw in January 2015 in the FA Cup, with a last-minute equalizer from Romelu Lukaku.

Taylor was also the controversial choice for the FA Cup semi final this last season as the Blues played Manchester United. This was despite a protest from Everton fans that the referee, who lives just a matter of miles from Old Trafford, was previously removed from officiating a United game against Aston Villa for that very reason after Villa complained.

He was also in charge for the dull 0-0 Merseyside Derby in February 2015 which ended with four Toffees shown yellow cards. Before October, Everton had lost five straight games that Taylor has officiated.

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Match Officials details -

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Assistants: S Burt, G Beswick

Fourth official: R East

Anthony Taylor Everton record -

World Football

Referee data courtesy of World Football