The Suspension Tightrope – Gameweek 9

Two more players toppled off the Suspension Tightrope at the weekend after collecting their fifth cautions of the domestic campaign.

Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson and West Brom defensive midfielder Claudio Yacob were the guilty parties after both were booked in Saturday evening’s late clash at Anfield.

Henderson, rather conveniently, will serve out a one-match suspension when the Reds take on Spurs in Tuesday’s EFL Cup fourth round tie, meaning he is available for Gameweek 10’s trip to Palace.

Yacob, however, will miss this weekend’s visit of Man City to the Hawthorns as the Baggies have already been eliminated from the EFL Cup in earlier rounds.

Four new players will be living life on the disciplinary edge after picking up their fourth yellow cards in Gameweek 9.

Everton midfielders Idrissa Gueye and Gareth Barry are amongst the latest recruits.

The former made it three yellows in his last four starts, while veteran bad boy Barry has seen more cautions than a health and safety poster designer – his latest, at Burnley, was his 113th, extending his own Premier League record once again.

James McClean hit an unwanted hat-trick at Liverpool. His third consecutive card in the league, when added to another in the EFL Cup against Northampton, leaves him teetering.

Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen made it two cautions in a row at Bournemouth to go with the consecutive cards he was shown in September.

The 7.9%-owned centre-half will need to tread carefully – at least until Toby Alderweireld returns from a leg injury – if Tottenham want to avoid stretching their resources even thinner.

Vertonghen is one of three players currently sitting on four yellows who also have an EFL Cup fixture in midweek.

Essentially, then, he could still be banned for the Gameweek 10 visit of Leicester City if he plays and is cautioned at Anfield tomorrow night.

Diego Costa and Marouane Fellaini are the two other names.

Sitting in 35% of Fantasy Premier League squads, Costa is clearly the biggest concern.

Chelsea’s frontman continues to defy his dark side with a third straight card-free match. The Blues’ EFL Cup trip to West Ham on Wednesday would have been an ideal time to serve a ban, but Diego is clearly above such cold calculations.

If he’s booked against the Hammers, though, Costa would miss the Gameweek 10 trip to Southampton next Sunday.

Yet over 38,000 FPL managers have already drafted him in this week, with the Spain international’s price rising overnight to 10.3.

Six other players remain precariously balanced after a guilt-free Gameweek – Robert Huth, Gaston Ramirez, Marouane Fellaini, Jose Holebas and the Stoke pair of Ryan Shawcross and Marko Arnautovic.

Holebas is the second most transferred in defender ahead of Gameweek 10, having served up a goal, assist and two clean sheets in three outings.

A trio of players will be back in the fold for this weekend after serving their respective suspensions.

Defenders Aaron Cresswell and Jonny Evans have completed their one-match bans, while Burnley striker Andre Gray’s four-match punishment for unsavoury tweets from back in the day is finally over.

Sam Vokes has scored back-to-back goals in his absence, so Gray’s status as a changed man might include another novelty – sitting on the bench – after starting all five matches prior to his suspension.

Outwith Yacob, Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka is the only player who will definitely miss Gameweek 10 at this point. He sits out the Gunners’ EFL Cup tie with Reading in midweek and the upcoming trip to Sunderland.

Finally, Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko could be in for a three-match ban after he was charged with violent conduct following his touchline spat with Harry Arter. Sissoko claims he didn’t know his Arter from his elbow and the Bournemouth midfielder has accepted his claim that it was a mistake.

The FA might not be so magnanimous, however. If found guilty, Sissoko would miss this week’s EFL Cup tie at Liverpool as well as the next two crucial Gameweeks – Leicester at White Hart Lane and then the North London derby.

He has until 6pm tomorrow to respond.

Shifting to the referees, surprisingly, we were without a single penalty award all weekend. That’s the first spot-kick blank of the season.

We’re still averaging 3.44 penalties per Gamewweek after 10 fixtures which still outstrips the 2.95 of the last campaign.

The Michaels, Dean and Oliver (both 6 in 8), still lead the way in terms of penalty awards, ranking alongside Roger East (3 in 4) who was without a Premier League assignment in Gameweek 9.

The yellow card average is now sitting at 3.87 per game, just six men in black sit above that average (out of the 17 used to date), with Kevin Friend topping the list on 5.60 per game.

Robert Madley (5.33), Jonathan Moss (5.14), Neil Swarbrick (4.40), Mark Clattenburg (4.40) and Mike Dean (4.13) make up the six.