West Brom’s Jonny Evans became the latest player to topple from the Suspension Tightrope after earning a booking in Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against Spurs.
Sitting in 8.4% of Fantasy Premier League teams, the Baggies centre-half picked up his fifth caution in the first eight Gameweeks and will now serve a one-match ban away to Liverpool next time out.
There are now nine players sitting just one yellow card short of a suspension.
Chelsea’s Diego Costa remains the main point of concern for Fantasy managers.
Having risen to joint-top of the FPL standings with a seventh goal of the season in Saturday lunchtime’s 3-0 win over Leicester, the Blues’ frontman has been subject to 52,000+ transfers in and now sits in 24.1% of sides ahead of a visit from Jose Mourinho’s Man United on Sunday.
The sceptics amongst us will suggest that Antonio Conte must surely be aware that a booking against the Red Devils would then allow Costa to serve out his suspension in the midweek EFL Cup clash with West Ham.
With that in mind, they’d be no real surprise to see Costa incur the referee’s wrath once again this weekend.
Elsewhere, Watford’s weekend goal hero Jose Holebas, along with Jordan Henderson, Ryan Shawcross and Claudio Yacob also remain on four cautions after successfully navigating Gameweek 8 without incident.
Holebas is the most transferred in defender in the Gameweek after his 15-point haul away to ‘Boro on Sunday but would-be suitors need to be aware that, due to defeat at home to Gillingham in late August, the Hornets are no longer involved in the EFL Cup.
Any booking Holebas therefore receives prior to the cut-off point in Gameweek 19 will ensure he misses Premier League duties.
That quintet are joined by Robert Huth, Marouane Fellaini, Gaston Ramirez and Marko Arnautovic on four yellows apiece after all four were cautioned in the previous round of fixtures.
In terms of new suspensions, Aaron Cresswell will now miss West Ham’s home clash with Middlesbrough after an eventful first appearance of the season.
Finally recovered from a knee injury, the defender was utilised as a wing-back at Selhurst Park and supplied the assist for Manuel Lanzini’s winner. Two quick second-half bookings resulted in a sending off and one-match ban.
Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka is set to start a three-match suspension after being sent off for a reckless lunge on Swansea winger Mo Barrow on Saturday.
Incredibly, that was the Swiss international’s eighth dismissal in just two-and-a-half years, meaning he will miss Gameweeks 9-10 in addition to an EFL Cup encounter with Reading.
They join Andre Gray on the sidelines, with the Burnley striker set to serve out the last of a four-fixture ban this weekend as Sean Dyche’s side welcome Everton to Turf Moor.
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