Arsenal will square off against bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, with Michael Oliver officiating the highly-anticipated clash.
Oliver has taken charge of nine Premier League games this season, the joint-most of any referee – showing he is still one of the top officials in the league.
He hasn’t taken charge of an Arsenal game this season but has officiated one Tottenham match – their 3-0 win over Burnley on the opening day.
This will be a difficult game for Oliver to referee, with the north London derby known to be a fearsome contest with tough tackles, flared tensions and drama.
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Michael Oliver’s Arsenal record
This will be Oliver’s 63rd Arsenal game in his Premier League career, making the Gunners his second-most officiated team. During those games, Arsenal have won 31 times, drawing 13 and losing 18. He’s dished out 109 yellow cards for Arsenal players and eight red cards in that time. Interestingly, he has only awarded them five penalty kicks, compared to 18 for Liverpool. Arsenal fans will remember how he controversially sent off Myles Lewis-Skelly in their 1-0 win at Wolves last season, which incidentally was the last time he was in charge of a Gunners game.
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches | 62 |
| Wins | 31 |
| Draws | 13 |
| Defeats | 18 |
| League points | 106 |
| Penalties per game | 0.08 |
| Yellow cards per game | 1.76 |
| Red cards per game | 0.13 |
What happened when Michael Oliver last refereed Arsenal in this fixture?
Oliver last took charge of a north London derby in the 2023-24 season, when Arsenal beat their rivals 3-2 away from home. While there was excitement on the pitch in a five-goal thriller, it was a relatively straightforward affair for Oliver in terms of his job. He only dished out one yellow card to an Arsenal player, Thomas Partey in the 83rd minute.
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Michael Oliver’s Tottenham record
Tottenham are also among Oliver’s most-officiated clubs, having taken charge of 52 games involving Spurs. Of those, 28 have been wins for the north London side, with 11 draws and 13 defeats. He has been slightly less trigger happy with Tottenham than he has against Arsenal, issuing 90 yellow cards from those games, working out at 1.73 per game, and five reds. He’s also given six penalties, which comes to just under one per game.
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches | 52 |
| Wins | 28 |
| Draws | 11 |
| Defeats | 13 |
| League points | 95 |
| Penalties per game | 0.11 |
| Yellow cards per game | 1.73 |
| Red cards per game | 0.09 |
What happened when Michael Oliver last refereed Arsenal in this fixture?
Tottenham put Oliver to work slightly more than Arsenal did in that 3-2 defeat in April 2024. He was forced to hand out two yellow cards to Tottenham players – Dejan Kulusevski in the 77th minute and Ben Davies in the 81st. There was also a VAR incident to contend with as he disallowed Mickey van de Ven’s strike for a marginal offside with the score at 1-0 to Arsenal.
What should we expect from Michael Oliver?
Oliver is not afraid to get stuck into a game after dishing out an average of 3.23 cards per game in his 408 Premier League matches. He is less likely to hand out a red after 0.14 reds per game in total, with 0.30 penalties per match. What is certain is Oliver will attempt to control the proceedings in a tense game like this and won’t tolerate any nonsense.