Arsenal learn referee for Port Vale clash | OneFootball

The EFL have confirmed their team of match officials for Arsenal’s game away to Port Vale on Wednesday.

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With the Premier League now well underway and Arsenal kicking off their Champions League campaign last week, the Gunners are taking a break from both competitions to play in the League Cup on Wednesday.

Arsenal are set to face League One Port Vale away from home on Wednesday night, and the EFL have confirmed their match official appointments for the fixture.

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Andrew Kitchen is set to referee the match, assisted by Shaun Hudson and Sam Lewis. The fourth official will be Andrew Humphries. VAR will not be in operation for the third round of the League Cup, so there are no appointments to make on that front.

Kitchen will be an unfamiliar referee to most Arsenal fans, as he’s never refereed the Gunners before.

But the official has been on an upward trajectory in the EFL system, taking charge of the League One play-off final earlier this year (having acted as the fourth official in the same fixture the previous year) and primarily refereeing in the Championship this season.

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As for Port Vale, they’ve been refereed by Kitchen on four occasions, the most recent of which was in February 2023.

They’ll presumably view his appointment as a good omen, as they won three of those four games and saw the referee hand two red cards to their opponents.