Andre Marriner will be the man in the middle as Norwich City begin their return to Premier League action with a Carrow Road clash against Liverpool.

The West Midlands official sent off an opposition player when he was last in charge of a Carrow Road game, as Watford beat the Canaries 2-0 in the top flight in November 2019.

Christian Kabasele made it an easy decision for Marriner in the 65th minute of that game, shoving Josip Drmic unnecessarily when already booked, to earn his second yellow card.

City fans were not impressed with Marriner earlier that season though, when he was the VAR official during a 2-0 defeat at West Ham, failing to intervene when referee Paul Tierney missed a late sliding challenge from Sebastien Haller which left Christoph Zimmermann on crutches and out for two months with an ankle injury.

He had reacted earlier in the campaign though, stepping in as VAR to help referee Martin Atkinson to rule out a late Chelsea goal at Carrow Road, after Tim Krul had been fouled in mid-air when he had claimed the ball, keeping the final score as a 3-2 win for the Blues.

The 50-year-old showed 79 yellow cards in 31 matches last season, the majority of which were in the Premier League, but only showed one red card.

On VAR duties for Saturday's televised 5.30pm kick-off will be Stuart Attwell.

The Warwickshire official showed 107 yellow and four red cards during 28 games as a referee last season, taking charge of City's 1-0 home defeat to Derby in October.

He was the referee for four Canaries games in the Premier League during 2019-20, all at Carrow Road, including the 3-1 win over Newcastle.

That also included a 3-1 defeat to Manchester United that featured a great deal of VAR controversy and two Tim Krul penalty saves, as well as 1-0 defeats to Liverpool and Brighton.

Referee: Andre Marriner. Assistants: Simon Long, Richard West. Fourth official: Andy Madley. VAR: Stuart Attwell. Assistant VAR: Gary Beswick.

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