Darren England, the referee of the Tottenham-Liverpool VAR debacle, returns to the Premier League. Darren and Daniel Cook will have roles in the matches at Brentford and Sheffield United respectively VARs Darren England and Daniel Cook will return to Premier League duty this weekend following their error in last month’s fixture between Tottenham and Liverpool. England and Cook were the VAR and VAR assistants respectively when Liverpool forward Luis Diaz’s goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside in Tottenham’s 2-1 home win. Both officials were stood down the following week, but England will be back as the fourth official for Brentford’s home game against Burnley on Saturday and Cook will return as assistant referee for Sheffield United’s home match against Manchester United.
Miscommunication between VAR England and referee Simon Hooper led to Diaz’s goal being wrongly ruled out on September 30, with the incident later described by referees’ chief Howard Webb as “a clear error”. Hooper is the designated VAR for Newcastle’s home game against Crystal Palace on Saturday. England will take over as the fourth official in Brentford's home match against Burnley next Saturday, while Cook will be the assistant referee in Sheffield United's match against Manchester United. As for Simon Hooper, the referee for Liverpool’s match against Tottenham on September 30, he will act as a video referee during Newcastle United’s home match against Crystal Palace on Saturday. With the loss to Tottenham, Liverpool stopped a series of five consecutive victories, before drawing 2-2 in the previous round against Brighton & Hove Albion, bringing coach Jurgen Klopp’s team to 17 points from eight matches, and coming in fourth place. Tottenham leads the league with 20 points, with a goal difference from second-placed Arsenal, then defending champion and European champion Manchester City comes in third place with 18 points, affected by losses in the last two rounds against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal.