Anthony Taylor will referee Chelsea's clash with Leeds United at Elland Road in the Premier League. The Premier League has confirmed that the 43-year-old will take charge on Wednesday evening, May 11, in Yorkshire.
He will be joined by assistants Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn. The fourth official will be Kevin Friend, with Stuart Attwell and Eddie Smart stationed in Stockley Park on video assistant referees duty.
Taylor has reffed 42 Blues fixtures since his first in 2012 when the west Londoners beat Portsmouth 4-0 in the FA Cup third round. He has already reffed Chelsea on five occasions this season alone, four of which have been in the Premier League and one, most recently, in the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace.
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Taylor has brandished 92 yellow cards to Chelsea players throughout his career, a further two of which that have led to dismissals and one red card. With a catalogue of Blues games under his belt, Taylor has built a reputation among the Chelsea fanbase.
His most notable outings have come in the 2020 FA Cup final against Arsenal, versus Manchester United in February 2020 and away to Liverpool in October 2021, among others too. Taylor's innings led to a fan creating a petition requesting that the official no longer referee Chelsea games.
As of August 2021, over 70,000 people had signed aforementioned petition. Accidentally or not, Marcos Alonso was caught 'liking' an image of said petition rallying against Taylor.
Speaking in a press conference earlier in the season ahead of Chelsea's bout with Brentford, Thomas Tuchel admitted that he had not been made aware of the petition and defended the referee. The Blues boss said: "I trust in the referees and I trust in Anthony Taylor that he will try to have his best performance tomorrow.
"We cannot – here at Cobham and at the club – get lost in ideas that there is actually something behind it. We have to make ourselves free from this and do what we need to do to win this match."
"Do we need a top referee? Yes. Do we need good decisions from VAR or none at all? Yes. Do we need a little bit of luck? Yes, and hopefully we can turn things around with Anthony Taylor," Tuchel added.
But, despite the German boss' defence of Taylor, Chelsea fans have a vendetta against the referee - in jest, of course. So, like any fanbase, Blues supporters took to Twitter to vent their thoughts on Taylor's appointment at Elland Road.
@CFCRaf2 said: "Every time we have a must win game this guy always pops up as the ref."
Singing from the same hymn sheet, @WatsonChanda60 said: "FA wants to make sure we don't make top 4. Controversial Var decisions in the last few games and now they bring on Taylor for the last nail in the coffin."
@Bhekinkosy tweeted: "He's back to haunt us."
Though, @Emerdale11 disagreed and said: "If we play well, we'll win. Stop crying about the baldy."
