Mark Clattenburg will not referee this weekend

So, let's talk about Mark Clattenburg more. I always like talking about Mark Clattenburg, after all. Anyway, the beleaguered referee missed last weekend's action after Chelsea's complaint about his language during the 3-2 home loss to Manchester United, and now it turns out he'll miss the next round of matches as well. That's according to Mark Riley, head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited:

PGMOL was fully prepared to appoint Mark to matches this weekend. However, having discussed this with him, we both consider that it is in Mark’s best interests that he has this week away from officiating duties while he prepares to help The FA and police with their enquiries.

-Source: Mail.

We've also started to see some more reasonable responses to the situation than the 'Chelsea are evil' kneejerk reaction from pretty much everyone last week. Sam Wallace of the Independent has a thoughtful take that everyone would do well to read. This is a difficult, complicated situation, and the fact that the media are backtracking and the police are involved suggests to me that the club's case might actually be stronger than initially reported.

This is going to be interesting. It won't be fun, mind.