Premier League appoint referee who angered Arne Slot for Liverpool vs Aston Villa

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The Premier League has announced the referee for Liverpool's upcoming clash with Aston Villa this weekend, with Stuart Attwell taking charge. The Reds, who are currently on a four-match losing streak in the league, are eager to get their title bid back on track.

Arne Slot's side suffered a 3-2 loss to Brentford last weekend , which resulted in them slipping to seventh place in the Premier League standings. This defeat, along with losses to Manchester United , Chelsea and Crystal Palace , means that Liverpool haven't tasted victory in the top flight since September 20 against Everton in the Merseyside derby.

Liverpool will be back at Anfield to face Villa in the Saturday evening kick-off, and it's been confirmed that Attwell will be the referee for the fixture. Attwell will be assisted by Nick Hopton and Craig Taylor, while Paul Tierney will be handling VAR duties.

Slot has previously expressed his frustration over a decision made by Attwell in a high-profile Liverpool match, which came against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup semi-final last season. The Reds boss felt that Lucas Bergvall should have been shown a second yellow card just before he netted the winner for Spurs in the first leg of the semi-final in January.

Bergvall escaped a booking for a tackle on Kostas Tsimikas that left the left-back needing treatment off the pitch. It was during Tsimikas' absence from the pitch that Bergvall scored the decisive goal against Liverpool, sparking Slot's annoyance.

“Yes, I don’t think there’s any debate about that," Slot told reporters on January 8 when asked if he thinks Attwell should have issued a second yellow card to Bergvall.

"They say he (the referee) didn’t (want to) stop the counter-attack and I say every manager would prefer when a tackle being made 40 yards from our goalkeeper, that the player is given a second yellow card rather than to continue the counter-attack with a player less to play that counter-attack with.

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“The next discussion is was it reckless enough to give advantage and come back and say the tackle was still too reckless and then give a yellow. When he (the referee) didn’t give the second yellow nobody thought it would have such a big impact 30 seconds later.

“I haven’t asked him, but I’m 99.9% sure I wasn’t the only one who felt ‘Wow, not the best’. I’m 99.9% sure when Bergvall scored the referee thought ‘Oh, is this really happening?’ because he couldn’t change it anymore. I think for him it was also far from ideal.

“In the offside decision he had to tell everyone what the decision was and unfortunately he didn’t have to do that with this decision.”

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