Australian official Jarred Gillett has been named as referee for Sunderland’s home game with Premier League rivals Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.

The news will not be a welcome sign for the Black Cats after they failed to win any of the five fixtures they have played with Gillett appointed as the man in the middle. You have to go back to October 2019 for the 40-year-old’s first Sunderland game as a Jason Cummings goal condemned the Black Cats to a 1-0 defeat at then-League One rivals Shrewsbury Town.

Gillett then oversaw a Championship draw with Burnley and a disastrous 4-0 home defeat against North East rivals Middlesbrough on a day when he dismissed Black Cats captain Dan Neil for a second bookable offence. That decision brought an apology from the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) and led the former Sunderland skipper to admit he felt ‘wronged’ by the dismissal.

Speaking to The Echo at the time, Neil said: “I’m not going to lie to you, it was very difficult to accept. I felt like I was wronged. I’d hold my hands up if I said something that was completely out of order, but I’m sat in the house watching our Stoke game and watching other games on a weekend I’m suspended and seeing tens of examples of people saying exactly what I said, if not worse, to referees.

“I just think it was an emotional decision by the ref but it’s gone, I can’t do anything about it. It was two yellows so you couldn’t appeal it so I kind of accepted it pretty quickly and was just desperate to get in the team, especially after the Stoke game I knew Leicester was coming up and it was a big game against basically a Premier League team. I was just itching to get back playing.”

Gillett has since been appointed for two Premier League fixtures involving Sunderland as he oversaw a goalless home draw with Manchester City in January and a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth just under two months later as an Eliezer Mayenda opener was cancelled out by an Evanilson equaliser. Neil Davies and Nick Greenhalgh have been appointed as Gillett’s assistants for Sunday’s game with Chelsea. with John Busby overseeing fourth official duties. Nick Hopton has been named as Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and he will be assisted by Wade Smith.