Andre Marriner hasn’t been suspended for his embarrassing gaffe at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The official will take charge of Newcastle’s trip to Southampton this coming Saturday, although many believed he might have suffered a brief demotion to the Football League.
The official made the biggest blunder in recent memory when he sent off Kieran Gibbs after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled the ball in the Arsenal area as Arsene Wenger’s side capitulated at Chelsea.
Marriner’s mistake didn’t have much bearing on the end result, but he felt compelled to apologise afterwards and told friends of his devastation at the mistake.
Marriner’s closest friends say he has been deeply affected by the incident during Chelsea’s 6-0 win and is still struggling to come to terms with how he could have made such an error.
He found out that the Premier League handed him a game on Monday afternoon.
This incident is unlikely to go away in a hurry for Marriner though, and it remains to be seen what reception he will get at St Mary’s on Saturday.
The ghastly mistake came about after Oxlade-Chamberlain had thrown himself at a shot from Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, using his hand to divert a ball he believed was heading for the corner of the net.
The referee then inexplicably sent off Gibbs in a fit of confusion, brandishing the red card amid protests from Arsenal’s players, including Oxlade-Chamberlain, who told the referee he was the offender.
After the match, the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, the referees’ body, issued a statement saying: ‘Andre is an experienced referee and is obviously disappointed that an error of mistaken identity was made.
‘Incidents of mistaken identity are very rare and are often the result of a number of different technical factors.’
Written by Steve Milne
