Everton's record with Paul Tierney as referee as Chelsea appointment confirmed
The 45-year-old official has been refereeing in the Premier League since 2015.
Wigan-born, Tierney joined the National List of Referees in 2009, and has also spent time taking charge of National League and EFL games.
He became a FIFA-listed referee in 2018, and is now one of the most experienced referees in the Premier League.
Everton will hope he's on form this weekend, as David Moyes' side prepare for their toughest test of the season yet in Xabi Alonso's Chelsea.
However, the Toffees will have horrible memories of the most recent time Tierney took charge of one of their games against the Londoners.
What was the score in Paul Tierney's last Everton vs Chelsea game?
The Premier League have confirmed that Tierney will be the man in the middle between Everton and Chelsea on Saturday.
His assistants are Richard West and Steven Meredith, the fourth official is Michael Salisbury, VAR is Nick Hopton and assistant VAR is Lee Betts.
As detailed via Transfermarkt, Tierney has held the whistle in Everton games 19 times over the course of his refereeing career.
The Toffees have won nine of those, losing eight and drawing twice, with their most recent game being the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day of this season.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry scored in that one, who will both be aiming to do the same this weekend.
However, the most recent game prior to that one in which Tierney refereed Everton was against this weekend's opponents, Chelsea.
The Stamford Bridge side won that one 6-0 in April 2024, marking another example of what has been a fairly dismal Toffees record with him recently.
What is Everton's recent record with Tierney as referee?
Football has a way of making heroes and villains out of ordinary people, and no person in the sport is more often made the latter than the referee.
When it comes to Everton and Tierney, he's largely been one of those whenever he's taken charge of Toffees games recently.
Dating back to November 2020, Tierney has refereed Everton eight times in all competitions.
In that time period, the Toffees have won just twice, losing five and drawing once.
More optimistically though, the aforementioned 6-0 loss to Chelsea is Everton's only loss with Tierney as referee from their last four with him.
So, with a largely rough recent record and with Tierney being the referee for that heavy Chelsea loss, Everton's task this weekend may have been made subtly tougher.
Kick-off at Hill Dickinson Stadium is scheduled for 12:30pm on Saturday.