Match officials revealed for Sheffield United v Man Utd including man at centre of Tottenham v Liverpool controversy

Sheffield United are back in action this weekend with a Saturday night visit from Manchester United as the Blades look to finally put their first win on the board this season.

And when they run out at Bramall Lane both teams will be led by one of the Premier League’s better referees, with Michael Oliver set to officiate a Blades match for the first time this term.

Oliver has recently been on international duty himself, with the Northumberland-native having taken charge of Denmark’s win over Kazakhstan at the weekend. Last week, he was the man in the middle for the top-of-the-table clash between Manchester City and Arsenal, dishing out five yellow cards, which is just a little over his 4.5 per game average.

However, last week there was one blot in his copybook when he chose not to send off Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic for a challenge on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard. The City midfielder was shown a yellow card before avoiding another shortly afterwards and refs boss Howard Webb later admitted Kovacic was “fortunate” to stay on the pitch.

Oliver will be assisted on the lines by Lee Betts and Dan Cook, with Andy Davies the fourth official. This will be the first match Cook has been involved in since the controversial Tottenham v Liverpool game in which Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled offside following a mistake in VAR. Cook was the VAR assistant in that match.

Sitting in Stockley Park as VAR is John Brooks who found himself in the headlines last season for an error which saw him stood down.

Brooks was the VAR at Crystal Palace v Brighton when he wrongly disallowed what would have been the opening goal by Seagulls’ Pervis Estupiñán after drawing the lines in the wrong place. The official ruled out the ‘goal’ after an offside line was drawn alongside Palace defender James Tomkins when Marc Guéhi was further back and playing Estupiñán onside.

Brooks was subsequently stood down from the Merseyside derby on the following Monday and Arsenal vs Man City on the Wednesday as a result of the error.

The assistant VAR for the match at Bramall Lane will be Akil Howson, who is new to the Premier League this season and ran the line in United’s defeat on the opening day against Crystal Palace.