Premier League confirm Brighton-Arsenal ref

The Premier League have published their list of match officials for Matchweek 5 of the new season, which includes Arsenal’s game away to Brighton & Hove Albion at 3pm on Saturday, September 19th.

Darren England will referee the match, assisted by Scott Ledger and Alistair Nelson, with Michael Salisbury as the fourth official.

Tim Wood will be on VAR, with James Mainwaring as the assistant VAR for the match.

Arsenal generally have a good record with England refereeing, winning six of their eight matches, with the most recent defeat coming in 2022.

The referee has made a few major errors in Arsenal games, but they’ve largely balanced out.

As a VAR official, England incorrectly confirmed a red card to Myles Lewis-Skelly against Wolves, which was later overturned on appeal. As a referee, he gave a penalty against Lewis-Skelly in a match away to Everton, which was also later deemed an incorrect decision.

But Mikel Merino was lucky to escape a second yellow in Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa last December, and Declan Rice was fortunate not to concede a penalty for handball against Chelsea in March. England was the referee on both occasions.

So whilst Lewis-Skelly might be wary of the referee making another mistake and incorrectly punishing him again, there won’t be major concerns from Arsenal on the whole about the choice of official for this match.