Crystal Palace and Chelsea face off in the Premier League on Sunday at 2pm, with Darren England set to referee.
England has overseen 13 Premier League matches this season, one of the more-used officials in the division. But it’s not an appointment Palace will want to see. He was the man in the middle for the goalless draw between these two sides at the start of the season, which saw Palace controversially disallowed a goal.
England has refereed both of these sides once in the league since, both defeats.
Crystal Palace go into the game in 13th, winless in their past seven league matches. Chelsea are sixth, having recently ended their own winless run.
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Darren England’s Crystal Palace record
This will be England’s 15th Crystal Palace game as a referee, with the Eagles being one of his most-officiated sides. And they don’t have a good record. Palace have won just two of their previous 14 games with England as referee. One win was in their very first match, back in February 2021. And the other came in the FA Cup. He’s awarded three penalties against Palace, with just one for them.
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches | 15 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Draws | 6 |
| Defeats | 6 |
| League points | 10 |
| Penalties per game | 0.07 |
| Yellow cards per game | 2.43 |
| Red cards per game | 0 |
What happened when Darren England last refereed Crystal Palace in this fixture?
Palace fans still won’t be over their goalless draw with Chelsea. The Eagles had three players booked, all for fouls. But you could have forgiven them for picking up a few more for dissent. Palace through they had taken an early lead through Eberechi Eze’s free-kick, which was cleared on the pitch. But, as with all goals, it was checked by VAR. And they found that Marc Guehi had been less than one metre away from the Chelsea wall. It was the first VAR call of its kind, with the rule having been brought in over six years ago.
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Darren England’s Chelsea record
This will be England’s seventh Chelsea game as a referee, and the Blues have failed to win four of the six so far. That includes two winless games this season, with one draw and one win. England has awarded Chelsea two penalties, with none against them.
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches | 6 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Draws | 3 |
| Defeats | 1 |
| League points | 6 |
| Penalties per game | 0.33 |
| Yellow cards per game | 1.67 |
| Red cards per game | 0 |
What happened when Darren England last refereed Chelsea in this fixture?
As mentioned, Chelsea were on the right end of a first-ever VAR review for a player’s distance from a wall. Outside of that, Chelsea received two yellow cards, one in either half for fouls.
What should we expect from Darren England?
England sits around the middle of the table when it comes to harshness among referees. He has averaged 3.9 cards per game this season, and 5.6 fouls per card. But he has shown at least four cards in eight of his 13 Premier League games so far. That includes the five shown in the opening weekend clash between these two sides at Stamford Bridge.