Mike Dean ready to brandish 100th red card.. and biggest victims Man City and Chelsea are up next
The referee has sent off nine players from either side in his career as he prepares to bring up his century in the Premier League
MIKE DEAN is just one red card away from his 100th Premier League sending off - and faces his two biggest victims when he takes charge of Manchester City against Chelsea on Sunday.
The English top flight's most experience official will oversee the biggest game of the weekend at the Etihad Stadium.
With only three months of the campaign remaining, it will go a long way to deciding the destination of the title and who will qualify for next season's Champions League.
Of the 99 times the 50-year-old Dean has dismissed in his Premier League career, nine have each come from City and Chelsea - the most of any other team.
Fabian Delph's red card against Leicester in December 2018 was the last time he showed a player from either side his marching orders.
Dean has reffed three matches since, moving to within one of his century when he sent off Huddersfield's Christopher Schindler against Burnley.
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He is on the verge of becoming the first ref to reach three figures for red cards in Premier League history.
And there is a good chance this weekend could see Dean reach that landmark, when he officiates his two biggest victims.
City and Chelsea top Dean's disciplinary hit-list, followed by Newcastle on seven, Arsenal on six and Tottenham, Stoke and West Brom on five.
Southampton's trip to Leicester in September 2000 was Dean's first Premier League match at the helm.
Nineteen years later he is the most prolific referee in the division's 27-year history.
Dean has taken charge of 472 games in all, ahead of the still-active Martin Atkinson and retired trio Graham Poll (329), Phil Dowd (308) and Mike Riley (283).
Dowd is the next closest official to 100 red cards on 67, but Dean is very likely to beat him to 100.
During a career which included taking the whistle for the 2008 FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff, Dean has sent off five players on two occasions.
They include ex-City players Richard Dunne and Andy Cole, former Chelsea and Liverpool forward Fernando Torres and Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny.
Mike Williamson, who represented Watford and Newcastle, is also among the list.
Dean is regarded as one of the most flash and histrionic referees on the circuit.
His career as a result has been dominated by funny and humorous moments on-the-field.
Perhaps his most famous moment came in 2015, when he appeared to celebrate a Tottenham goal against Aston Villa at White Hart Lane.
Additionally, Dean often produces unnecessary step-overs when the ball inadvertently comes in his direction.
In a Merseyside derby in December 2016 he produced a no-look yellow card to Ross Barkley, to add to his reputation as a flamboyant official.
And when he sent off Brighton's Lewis Dunk against Bournemouth this season, he said "off you pop" to the England international before dishing out the card.