ANTHONY TAYLOR IN CHARGE FOR LONDON DERBY

ANTHONY Taylor will be hoping to put a controversial festive period behind him when he takes charge of Saturday's London derby between Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur in the Barclays Premier League.

The 36-year-old, from Manchester, took flak from Chelsea when he cautioned  Cesc Fabregas for diving in the penalty box in the match at Southampton (December 28) which ended in a 1-1 draw.

The incident  prompted Blues boss Jose Mourinho - miffed that his side had not been awarded a penalty - to claim that there was a "diving campaign" against his side.

Taylor also missed a handball by QPR 'keeper Robert Green outside the penalty box in the match with  Swansea (January 1) which also ended 1-1.

Former referee Graham Poll was subsequently quoted as describing Taylor as "a mid-range referee" - by comparison with Michael Oliver ("brilliant") and Mike Jones ("not brilliant"),

Poll believes referees' chief Mike Riley should hold a weekly press conference to explain how incorrect  decisions come to be made and what is being done by the PMOGL to reduce the frequency of errors.




Taylor has not been man in the middle for any of Palace's Premier League matches this season, but he has been in charge for two Spurs matches - the 4-0 home win over QPR ((August 24) and the 1-2 home defeat versus Newcastle.

The rest of this weekend's Barclays Premier League appointments are listed below

Saturday 10 January 2015
K.O.	MATCHES	REFEREE	ASST. REF. 1	ASST. REF. 2	4TH OFFICIAL
12:45	Sunderland v Liverpool	Craig Pawson	D Cann	J Brooks	R Madley
15:00	Burnley v QPR	Andre Marriner	M Perry	M Salisbury	L Mason
15:00	Chelsea v Newcastle	Roger East	J Collin	M Scholes	M Jones
15:00	Everton v Man City	Martin Atkinson	S Child	H Lennard	P Dowd
15:00	Leicester v Aston Villa	Michael Oliver	S Bennett	A Garratt	G Scott
15:00	Swansea v West Ham	Mike Dean	S Burt	E Smart	J Adcock
15:00	West Brom v Hull	Neil Swarbrick	S Long	A Nunn	K Stroud
17:30	Crystal Palace v Spurs	Anthony Taylor	G Beswick	S Ledger	K Friend

Sunday 11 January 2015
K.O.	MATCHES	REFEREE	ASST. REF. 1	ASST. REF. 2	4TH OFFICIAL
13:30	Arsenal v Stoke	Jonathan Moss	R West	A Halliday	L Probert
16:00	Man Utd v Southampton	Phil Dowd	M Mullarkey	D Bryan	M Oliver