WEEKEND REF WATCH: Decisions in the Champions League show that ...

By Graham Poll

PUBLISHED: 06:53 EST, 13 December 2013 | UPDATED: 07:12 EST, 13 December 2013

The Champions League was fascinating this week - three games confirmed to me that England still has the best group of referees. There may be better individuals, but for strength in depth we have the best.

As Atletico Madrid eliminated Porto, there was one of the most blatantly offside goals allowed to stand by the German officials.

Worse was to follow in the game between Marseille and Borussia Dortmund as a Croatian team of officials, led by referee Marijo Strahonja, almost cost last year's finalists their place in the last 16.

In the 86th minute, with Dortmund pressing for the goal they needed to qualify, Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda clattered into a Robert Lewandowski for as clear a penalty as you could wish to see.

Incredibly Strahonja awarded a free kick to Marseille. Luckily for him Dortmund were good enough to create another chance which they took and negated his error.

I don't expect to see him in the knockout stages but one referee who will be there is England's Howard Webb. Our number one referee had the dubious pleasure of refereeing the decisive AC Milan versus Ajax game and both teams made it a very difficult evening with their ill-discipline and attitudes.

That Webb can come through such matches so well shows much for his strength of character which has been finely tuned in the Premier League.

Webb returns from his Champions League battle in the San Siro and he will be pleased to have a low key game after such a mentally exhausting game on Wednesday evening. Once again he is teamed up with his two regular assistants, Cann and Mullarkey and that really helps a referee as you are on a wavelength and build up levels of trust after doing so many games as a team. Webb has refereed both teams only once this season; Cardiff lost 2-0 at West Ham while West Brom drew 0-0 at Stoke.

Just over a year ago Clattenburg refereed a game at Stamford Bridge which he will never forget. That was when he was accused of inappropriate comments by Jon Obi Mikel and missed a month's appointments as a consequence. He was cleared of any wrong doing and has refereed at Chelsea once since, a 2-0 win over Swansea at the end of last season - Mikel took no part in that game. He has not refereed Chelsea this season but did upset Palace when awarding a late, harsh penalty for hand ball for the only goal of the game against Tottenham.

Taylor takes charge of his first game at Goodison this season but his third game with Everton; they drew 0-0 at Cardiff and beat Aston Villa 2-0 with him refereeing. Fulham last saw Taylor in their creditable 0-0 draw at West London rivals Chelsea in November 2012. Last weekend Taylor was excellent in the 1-1 draw between Southampton and Manchester City and he must be delighted with his return to form and will be looking for that to continue at Everton.

Dean also returns from Milan where he performed his last duties for UEFA as one of the extra officials behind the goal. After the furore over the penalty Dean awarded Fulham last weekend it will probably need a major incident for him to point to the spot this week. This is his first visit to the KC stadium this season; in fact he has not refereed Hull all season but was in charge when Stoke lost 3-1 at Arsenal.

Atkinson gets the pick of the weekend's games as Arsenal go to try and stop City at The Etihad; so far they have won all seven games at home, scoring 29 and only conceding two goals. Atkinson was at this stadium on exactly the same weekend last year when City lost 2-3 to their rivals from across Manchester - and he has not been back since. He has refereed the League leaders twice this season and they won both games, at Sunderland and home to Liverpool.

Jones was the other extra official in Milan - one wonders how much longer UEFA will persevere with this given the success of the goal-line technology being trialled here and the cost of flying so many extra officials around Europe must cover the cost of the goal-line technology - not that UEFA are necessarily having to count the pennies! Southampton enjoyed an excellent draw at Old Trafford with Jones in charge and Newcastle beat Leeds 2-0 when he last visited St James' Park.

Marriner has been selected to handle this game - a real bottom of the table clash which would be a 'six pointer' if it was later in the season. Sunderland fans are hardly likely to have forgotten that it was Marriner who sent both Andrea Dossena and Lee Cattermole off at Hull last month in a game they lost 0-1. Not so memorable was the 0-0 draw which West Ham managed at Southampton when they last saw the West Midlands referee.

Sunday December 15

Foy gets the next instalment of the Manchester United saga but at a ground they traditionally do well at. Villa won 1-0 at Norwich with Foy refereeing and United won 2-1 at Sunderland. I used to enjoy refereeing this fixture as the atmosphere in the wonderful Villa Park seemed to encourage both teams to put on an exciting game - my favourite being an FA Cup tie which United stormed back from two down to win 3-2 with three late goals in 2002.

The excellent Oliver is again in action and with what should be a nice game to control. Oliver has developed the ability to stay out of the headlines but make big decisions in games, the red card for Kevin Nolan last weekend is a case in point. Oliver has identical records with these two teams this season having refereed them once each in games which finished 2-2 against Merseyside opponents he cautioned two Norwich and two Swansea players; looks like a draw then!

Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

Moss is a surprise choice for this live top six game as his previous top of the table clash this season, Man City v Everton, ended up with nine players cautioned. Tottenham will be happy to see Moss as they have won both games with him in charge this season, both in the Capital One Cup. Moss has also refereed Liverpool when they beat West Brom 4-1 at Anfield.