Newcastle United dealt bad hand in upcoming Arsenal contest
By Cade Cracas
Newcastle United and Arsenal are preparing to go up against one another in one of the most exciting contests in the Premier League this season. As it currently stands, Newcastle sits third in the league, while Arsenal sits at the top in first.
As of May 3rd, the Premier League has finally confirmed what officials will be running the match between the two sides at St. James Park.
These two teams are gearing up to go toe-to-toe at 4:30 p.m. GMT as they look for a momentum builder down the stretch of the season.
The Premier League has assigned Chris Kavanagh, Richard West, Nick Greenhalgh and Anthony Taylor. Kavanagh will be the lead referee, West and Greenhalgh will be the assistants and Taylor will be the fourth official.
Those assigned to VAR are Andy Madley and Scott Ledger. Ledger will be the assistant to Madley.
The issue though lies with Kavanagh, who has been on the wrong side of calls that went against Newcastle United throughout the season.
His most notable, and recent, came when Newcastle took on Brentford.
The call, which sent shockwaves through the social media space, sent Brentford to the penalty kick line where they scored their only goal of the game. Kavanagh awarded a penalty for a high boot from Alexander Isak on Rico Henry. Even with a VAR review, the call was still made, giving Brentford their only goal of the contest.
Ultimately, even with the bad call, Newcastle United was able to pull off a victory, 2-1 with forward Isak and a Brentford player, each scoring a goal for the Magpies.
Just a few games later against Everton, Kavanagh was the assistant VAR where he helped deem that a challenge against Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff was not worthy of being called a penalty.
So, with plenty of controversial calls, it will be interesting to see if anything detrimental impacts the Arsenal and Newcastle United game this coming weekend.
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