Premier League announce official Newcastle United & Manchester City decision

Newcastle host the Citizens at St James’ Park on Saturday (kick-off 12:30pm) hoping to bounce back from their first defeat of the new campaign at Fulham last weekend.

Jarred Gillett has been appointed as referee with Darren Cann and Akil Howson as his assistants. Stuart Attwell and Timothy Wood are on VAR duty with Robert Jones as the fourth official.

It will be the first Premier League game involving Newcastle that Gillett has officiated since the final day of the 2022-23 season when a 1-1 draw was played out with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Gillett refereed the Magpies on three occasions last season, all of which were cup fixtures. He escaped controversy in United’s FA Cup victories at Fulham and Blackburn Rovers - unlike his Carabao Cup outing.

In Newcastle’s quarter-final clash at Chelsea in December, Gillett opted against handing Moises Caicedo a straight red card for a nasty tackle on Anthony Gordon inside the opening stages.

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Gillett cautioned the £115million-rated midfielder but with no VAR in place, he was unable to take a second look. Eddie Howe later revealed his fury at the challenge, which eventually forced Gordon to withdraw in the second-half.

"Anthony was sore, it was a horrible challenge on him I thought having reviewed it," said Howe. "Really disappointed with the tackle. He’s sore but we’ll see how he is today, hopefully, he’ll improve quickly."

The Blues went on to beat Newcastle 4-2 on penalties to advance into the semi-finals .Callum Wilson opened the scoring at but a last-minute Kieran Trippier error gifted Mykhailo Mudryk an equaliser.