John Brooks appointed as referee for Manchester City vs West Ham United | OneFootball

One of Manchester City's two games in hand over title rivals Arsenal comes this Wednesday (depending on when you're reading this Arsenal may have already played Chelsea on the Tuesday night and once again be two games in front of City) and John Brooks has been appointed referee at the Etihad Stadium against West Ham United for the crucial Premier League match.

John Brooks

John Brooks has only become a regular in the Premier League over the past couple of years, after working his way up the football league ladder in England, so as of now he has far more experience refereeing Coventry City than Manchester City. In-fact the Leicestershire based referee has never refereed a City game in the Premier League before, taking on only one blues' game in the FA Cup.

The thirty-two year-old was set to be the man in VAR room for the top of the table clash at the Emirates Stadium back in February between Arsenal and Manchester City, but was dropped from the match by the PGMOL head Howard Webb after he incorrectly advised the match official to rule out a Brighton goal against Crystal Palace by misplacing the 'virtual offside lines' on the monitor.

The one Manchester City match that Brooks officiated on the pitch was the 6-0 win over Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-final this year, a straight-forward match for the official, the game relatively incident free. In fact, he has yet to book, send off, or give a penalty against Manchester City - if that continues on Wednesday it will be a very, very good night for the Premier League champions.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Full Appointments:

Referee: John Brooks

Assistants: Matthew Wilkes & Nick Greenhalgh

Fourth Official: Robert Jones

VAR: Michael Salisbury

Assistant VAR: Constantine Hatzidakis