The Premier League has confirmed the match officials for Chelsea’s home game with Brentford on Sunday
The Premier League have confirmed that Peter Bankes will officiate Sunday’s meeting between Chelsea and Brentford at Stamford Bridge. The Blues host their West London rivals at 7pm on Sunday, with the game kicking off in the evening after Chelsea's 16-hour round trip to Kazakhstan.
The Blues were in UEFA Europa Conference League action against Astana on Thursday and faced a longer flight time due to the plane not being able to take a direct route as it could not fly over conflict zones in Ukraine, Russia and Syria. Given the extended nature of an already-long away trip, the Premier League agreed to push the London derby back from the usual slot of 2pm on Sunday.
Bankes has taken charge of 10 Chelsea games in his career, with the Blues winning six, drawing three and losing once. He has been in charge of Brentford 19 times, with the Bees picking up seven victories, seven draws and five loses in those fixtures. This season, he has taken charge of eight Premier League fixtures. He has produced an average of four yellow cards per game and given just over 18 fouls per 90 minutes.
He was in charge for Chelsea’s 4-2 win over Brighton and Hove Albion at the end of September, awarding a 28th-minute penalty to Enzo Maresca’s side. The spot-kick was converted by Cole Palmer. Sunday’s match will be the first time he has officiated a Brentford game this season. Ian Hussin and Nick Greenhalgh will be his assistants while Rob Jones is the fourth official. Matt Donohue will be the VAR with Dan Robathan his assistant.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said ahead of the game: “I like to convince myself and the players that the only way to fight for something or compete for something is to be focused on the day-to-day. If you start to think one month, two months, three months ahead, it’s the beginning of a bad time. The good thing is I like to think day by day. This is not something I say because I have to say it, I really think it's the way to improve myself and also my players. Just focus on what we can do better in terms of our training session or improving players and the team. Then at what moment can we think of something different? I don't know.”
Brentford boss Thomas Frank also spoke ahead of the weekend: “I expect an interesting game with two good teams. They are maybe the best team in the Premier League right now. They are maybe even more in-form than Liverpool, even though they are top of the league. They are playing incredible football and are well-coached. [Enzo] Maresca has done a top job so far with his coaching staff and they look extremely dangerous. They have so many threats going forward and have top-quality players all over the pitch. I expect an unbelievably difficult game. They are massive favourites but, of course, we believe that we can compete against anyone and we believe we can win."
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