Ref watch…Mark Halsey

This will come as good news to both clubs as only Blackburn have accrued more cautions than Everton and Sunderland. Blackburn top the bad boys league with 61 yellow cards and five reds, Everton are just behind with 55 yellows and six reds and then Sunderland have picked 54 yellows and three reds.

Which is mad when you think about it because we are hardly a team of cloggers are we? With a midfield of Steven ‘two-footed-lunge' Gerrard and Mohammed ‘over-the-top' Sissoko (seriously, have you ever seen a more clumsy tackler?!) you'd have thought that lot would have picked up more cards than us. And that's before we even get started talking about Bolton…

But anyway, the ref…He has taken charge of 15 Premiership games this season and issued 27 yellow cards and 5 reds. His average of just 2.13 cards per game is one of the lowest in the Premiership. To put this into some sort of context, Phil Dowd has an average of 4.50 cards per game and has now overtaken (fans' favourite) Mike Riley as the most card-happy official in the division.

In the two Everton matches he's refereed this season he's booked just one player as Mikel Arteta was cautioned during the 2-0 win up at Blackburn.

He has also refereed two Sunderland matches this season and booked just one player. Danny Collins was the only Black Cats' player booked as Sunderland crashed out of the FA Cup with a 1-2 defeat at Brentford.

After last week's refereeing debacle, it is hoped that all the talk this weekend will be about the two teams and not the referee.