Chris Kavanagh dropped by Premier League after major blunders in Newcastle FA Cup tie

Chris Kavanagh won't referee a Premier League match this weekend after making a series of errors during Saturday's FA Cup clash between Newcastle and Aston Villa . One of his assistants, Nick Greenhalgh, also hasn't been selected.

Kavanagh, Greenhalgh and assistant Gary Beswick were officiating without the help of VAR in the fourth-round tie at Villa Park. Although Newcastle ran out 3-1 winners to advanced to the next round, they were left aggrieved by a series of decisions .

They firstly failed to flag Tammy Abraham for offside in the build-up to the striker opening the scoring for Villa. After that, Lucas Digne escaped a red card for a shin-high tackle on Newcastle winger Jacob Murphy .

And in the most high-profile gaffe, Kavanagh awarded a free-kick - not a penalty - when Digne blocked a cross with his arm inside the box. Wayne Rooney described it as 'one of the worst decisions he's ever seen'.

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For the upcoming round of league matches, both Kavanagh and Greenhalgh have been given the weekend off. Beswick, however, will be an assistant referee for the game between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool on Sunday.

Kavanagh is regarded as one of England's best officials, regularly refereeing high-profile fixtures. In January, having taken charge of multiple Champions League games, the 40-year-old was promoted to UEFA's elite list of referees, joining Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor .

But officials are held accountable by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). Their performances are judged by an independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel.

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On punditry duty at Villa Park, Newcastle legend Alan Shearer was furious and believes that the officials were 'petrified' to make a decision without VAR as backup. "There is perhaps a small excuse for the referee to not see this - and I'm being kind to him," Shearer began.

"But there is no excuse whatsoever for the assistant (Greenhalgh) is, who is 10 or 15 yards away and has had an absolute nightmare today. He cost for the offside free-kick (Abraham's goal) and he's 15 yards away from that.

"Goodness me! If you ever needed any evidence of the damage VAR has done to the referees, I think today is a great example of that, because these guys, I think, look petrified to make a decision today because they didn't have a comfort blanket.

"And that's the damage it's done to the officials. For me, they're actually getting worse because I really don't think that is a difficult decision at all, in fact it's easy and at this standard, that has to be given. There's no excuse for the assistant not to tell his referee that he's got that totally wrong."