Martin Atkinson of Leeds will referee Sunday's massive Premiership clash as we travel to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea.

The 38-year old from Morley started refereeing at the age of 16 in his local leagues. It took him 11 years before he reached Football League Assistant level. He spent two seasons with the flag in the Football League before promotion to The Premiership. He still keeps close to the grass roots of football and refereed the West Riding County U-14 Trophy Final last season.

He only spent two seasons as a referee before getting into The Premiership, and celebrated getting into the top league by refereeing the Division Two Play-Off Final between Southend United and Lincoln City at Cardiff.

He has been a Premiership referee since the 2004/05 season, with his debut game coming at Selhurst Park in September as two Anelka strikes gave Manchester City the three points in a 2-1 win.

Martin leads the way so far with 22 cautions from his first 5 Premiership games, including Reina, Torres and Škrtel from our 3-1 home defeat by Aston Villa. He has yet to referee Chelsea in 2009 in a league game, the last time was in November 2008 as Sunderland were on the end of a 5-0 hammering in London. However, he did referee Chelsea's 2-1 Semi-Final win against Arsenal in the FA Cup back in April.

Martin has been on the FIFA list since 2006 and has recently tested the Champions League water. Last month he showed 8 yellow cards during Real Madrid's 5-2 win at Zürich, the only surprise was that Xabi Alonso was not one of the eight considering he cautioned him 5 times as a Liverpool player.

His assistants for the game are Phil Sharp and Dave Richardson with Steve Bennett as the fourth official.

A few memorable matches involving Liverpool and Martin Atkinson:
4th March 2006 - Fernando Morientes plays in his 50th Liverpool game as we draw 0-0 at home to Charlton Athletic.
13th August 2006 - Another victory over Chelsea. Riise and Crouch net in a 2-1 FA Community Shield victory in Cardiff.
9th January 2007 - Arsenal run riot at Anfield and win 6-3 in the quarter-final of the Carling Cup. Julio Baptista scores four goals and becomes the first player in over 60 years to score that many at Anfield. It was also the first time in 77 years that a visiting team had scored six times. The game was also Luis García's last for Liverpool after he was carried off injured.
3rd March 2007 - A last minute O'Shea goal gives Manchester United the points at Anfield.
25th September 2007 - Debuts for Hobbs, Itandje, Lucas and Leto during a 4-2 win at Reading in the Carling Cup. Torres scores his first hat-trick for Liverpool and Benayoun scores his first Liverpool goal.
19th December 2007 - Peter Crouch sees red as we bow out of the Carling Cup with a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea.
16th February 2008 - Barnsley produce an FA Cup shock at Anfield winning 2-1 after Kuyt had given us a first-half lead.
3rd January 2009 - The biggest attendance at Deepdale since 1972 saw us beat Preston 2-0 in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.
22nd March 2009 - Steven Gerrard scores his first Premiership hat-trick in a 5-0 romp against Aston Villa at Anfield.
25th April 2009 - Dirk Kuyt scores on his 100th Premiership appearance in a 3-1 win at Hull City.
17th May 2009 - A 2-0 win at The Hawthorns seals West Brom's fate as they are relegated from the Premiership. Arbeloa plays his last game for Liverpool.
24th August 2009 - Liverpool's first home defeat for two years in Kuyt's 150th game for the club as Aston Villa win 3-1.