Manchester City host Manchester United on Thursday night as the sides face each other for the final time this season.
Hours before Arsenal ended Pep Guardiola’s chances of winning a trophy in his first season in England, United’s win at Burnley moved them to within a point of City in the Premier League table, meaning a win this week would see them overtake their neighbours as both look to secure a top four finish.
Clearly, with slightly more than local bragging rights riding on the game, there’s been a great deal of interest in which referee would be in charge of the game – isn’t that right, Yaya?
We’ve now learned that the man in charge will be Martin Atkinson, as confirmed by a tweet from the Premier League…
Match official appointments have been made for Thursday’s Manchester derby and #PL Matchweek 35: https://t.co/lYOCwEttIN pic.twitter.com/h2Q3hdaj2I
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 24, 2017
Atkinson has refereed Manchester derby games in the past, with United winning three of them, although this didn’t seem to come as much of a comfort to many United fans – especially those who remember a couple of his performances in crucial games against Chelsea in the not-so-distant past…
Martin Atkinson…Hmmmmmmm have my doubts, but we're ain't playing Chelsea …lets see how it goes!!!
— Austine Osas (@Ousteeen) April 24, 2017
Martin Atkinson has been appointed referee for Manchester derby at the Etihad.
Ohhh fuck off !!!!
— Ψ AABQ Ψ (@a_Bomarzog) April 24, 2017
As for City fans, well, they weren’t too optimistic, either…
https://twitter.com/Shaggy_Dhruv/status/856537652534718464
https://twitter.com/Pepceptional/status/856527357494136833
What's the odds on city having a player sent off #oddson
— seniorburnageblue (@NeilinBurnage) April 24, 2017
However, reaction to the appointment wasn’t all negative…
https://twitter.com/SayNoMore33/status/856548851599233025
https://twitter.com/bdpmacca/status/856529473553956865
We’re not sure this was meant to be that much of a compliment, however…
https://twitter.com/conorm11/status/856524788600320000
Catch up with this week’s episode of 888Sport Football Friday Live
