There was just the one match to complete the gameweek last night, but Fulham’s late victory over Liverpool – ending the Reds’ impressive run of away wins – was an action packed one in terms of disciplinary affairs…..
A controversial red card shown to Liverpool’s Jay Spearing was the lowlight, with his late challenge on Moussa Dembélé landing him with three matches of enforced rest (QPR, avl, wig). While the victim in that play, Dembélé, earned himself a fourth yellow card for an earlier challenge on Luis Suarez and a space on our Suspension Tightrope.
Post-match, though, Kenny Dalglish revealed the club are considering an appeal against the dismissal, with the Liverpool boss far from happy with a decision that leaves his side short for central midfield options, given that Lucas was ruled out for the rest of the season only last week.
Having rounded up the other sinners in yesterday’s update, the rest of today’s article is a chance to review the other disciplinary stories of the last week and to dissect their various fantasy ramifications.
Gary Cahill
First up, as expected, Bolton have lodged their appeal over Gary Cahill’s red card from the weekend loss. This incident will now be heard by the FA panel later this week to determine if Cahill has a case to answer. If not, he will be available for the trip to Aston Villa in gameweek 15, but if the panel feel there is any frivolity in this appeal, they can -if they wish- add additional games to the ban. He’ll remain on our ban list for now then until there’s further news.
Romelu Bertrand and Ryan Lukaku
The second story to tidy up comes from the Carling cup quarter-final fixtures, where Chelsea’s Ryan Bertrand was incorrectly booked for a lunge on Jordan Henderson- Romelu Lukaku was the real culprit is a bizarre case of mistaken identity. It seems that to date no appeal has been lodged by Chelsea to correct the decision, but as this Guardian article explores – this might just suit both the club and Lukaku, as the yellow that was brandished means that a retrospective suspension in the form of an FA charge is no longer an option for the disciplinary panel, despite the apparent severity of the challenge. Like turkeys voting for Christmas, we think this one is therefore destined to go no further.
Luis Suarez
The ‘elephant in the room’ when it comes to disciplinary matters is the alleged racism case involving Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra. Much has already been written in the press regarding the details of the case, so we’re not going to delve into those further, but it’s been dragging on for some time now so it’s worthwhile updating on the progress. For those that have been living in a cave, this incident first blew up almost 2 months ago in the 15th October fixture when Manchester United visited Anfield.
While Suarez was charged by the FA a month later, given the nature of the case and the complicated semantics involved, progress has been understandably slow since then and no hearing has yet been held. Some sources (such as Daniel Taylor’s summary last week) suggest this one may have some legs yet, but over the weekend, the Mirror broke the news that this case will be heard “in the next 2 weeks”. We wait therefore with baited breath.
Suarez was also involved in further controversy in last night’s Craven Cottage defeat. After spending much of the evening getting grief from the Fulham fans amidst accusations of diving, the Uruguayan is alleged to have gestured in response- something the FA may also choose to analyse if they feel there’s a case to answer.
And Finally
I’m not expecting to make this a regular feature of this as we’ve got Andy to enlighten us in European affairs, but I stumbled across this useful list on the Yahoo sport pages earlier and it fits nicely here. The list details the disciplinary situation ahead of the round 6 fixtures in the Champions League, so it may act as a pointer to players that might be handed a rest to avoid suspension in the knock-out rounds. Make of it what you will when it comes to picking your team in the rotation minefield of the upcoming match days. Look out for Andy’s Watchlist post later to further steer your thoughts.
Gameweek 15 Bans
- Stephen N’Zonzi (Blackburn) – FA Charge (Last of 3 matches)
- Gary Cahill (Bolton) – 1 Red for a professional foul (1 match)
- David Wheater (Bolton) – 1 Red for serious foul play (Second of 4 matches)
- David Luiz (Chelsea) – 5 Yellows (1 match)
- Jay Spearing (Liverpool) – 1 Red for serious foul play (First of 3 matches)
- Lee Cattermole (Sunderland) – 5 Yellows (1 match)
- Joe Allen (Swansea) – 1 Red for 2 bookings (1 match)
Suspension Tightrope – Four bookings
- Alex Song (Arsenal)
- Gabby Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)
- Stiliyan Petrov (Aston Villa)
- Paul Robinson (Bolton)
- Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
- Moussa Dembélé (Fulham)
- Brede Hangeland (Fulham)
- Steve Sidwell (Fulham)
- Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle)
- Ryan Shawcross (Stoke)
- Glenn Whelan (Stoke)
