West Ham United v Southampton
Premier League, London Stadium, Saturday 19 April 2025, 3pm BST
Referee: Andrew Kitchen
Assistant Referees: Simon Bennett and Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Marc Perry
Saturday’s match will be refereed by Andrew Kitchen, who will be taking charge of a Premier League fixture for the first time in his career.
The Durham native has made a rapid rise through the officiating ranks, having been added to the Select Group 2 (SG2) list of officials, who predominately take charge of EFL Championship matches, at the start of the 2023/24 season.
This season, Kitchen has taken charge of 24 Championship fixtures, with the most recent being Monday’s 1-1 draw between Hull City and Coventry City.
Prior to that, Kitchen was a member of the National Group, and he began officiating in the EFL at the start of the 2021/22 season.
Before being promoted to the National Group, Kitchen refereed in the National League North and South, taking charge of the National League South Play-Off final between Woking and Welling United in May 2019.
In 2019/20, he moved up to the National League, while also officiating in Premier League 2, and remained at that level for two seasons before joining the National Group in the summer of 2021.
He has since taken charge of over 100 matches in the EFL, as well as FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy ties and two EFL League One Play-Off semi-finals.
Simon Bennett and Dan Robathan will serve as the assistant referees to Kitchen on his Premier League debut.
Bennett (pictured, above), from Staffordshire, is an experienced assistant who worked at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He is also a regular for UEFA, assisting in the Champions League and other European fixtures, and has assisted in 39 previous West Ham United fixtures.
Robathan has worked in the Premier League since 2018 and assisted in 23 previous West Ham matches.
The assistants often work in the same officiating team and have done so for our home matches with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United and away fixture at Arsenal this season.
Fourth official duties will be fulfilled by one of England’s most experienced officials in Anthony Taylor.
Greater Manchester-born Taylor has taken charge of two FA Cup finals, an EFL Cup final, the FA Community Shield, the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup final, the 2023 UEFA Europa League final and, at international level, the 2021 UEFA Nations League final between France and Spain.
This will be the first time Taylor has served as fourth official at a West Ham fixture this season.
Stuart Attwell will serve as Video Assistant Referee (VAR). The Warwickshire official became the youngest referee in Premier League history, aged 25, in 2008, and has since refereed nearly 600 matches, including 216 in England’s top flight.
This will be his eighth VAR appointment for a West Ham fixture and fifth of the 2024/25 season following the home games with Chelsea and Fulham and away matches at Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Attwell will be assisted at Stockley Park by Marc Perry, an experienced assistant referee who has been on the line at a number of West Ham matches previously.
