A busy Saturday on the tightrope saw plenty of jostling for position in the rogues gallery with yellow cards for a number of familiar faces, and a significant red for long term Fantasy favourite, Yakubu.
Now into his tenth season in English football, the portly Nigerian has been as much a constant in the goalscoring charts as he has been absent from the disciplinary ones. However, guilty of planting a full set of studs on Danny Murphy’s knee in the 3-1 win over Fulham, ‘The Yak’ duly picked up his first Premier League red and will now sit out the next three Gameweeks (eve, NEW, ars).
In the yellow card stakes, Yakubu’s teammate Jason Lowe still leads the way having picked up 8 cautions in his first 19 games for the club, but with 3 games in the New Year now completed without adding to that tally he’s seen John Terry last week, and now Lee Cattermole draw level with him, following his booking in the 1-0 loss at Chelsea. All three now sit just 2 cards away from a two-match ban.
Yellow cards also for Everton’s Marouane Fellaini and Wolves’ Karl Henry bring them into the mix forming a fearsome quartet with Joey Barton and Gary Caldwell on 7 yellows for the season, while new faces joining the growing band on 6 bookings were Chelsea pair, David Luiz and Raul Meireles and the Stoke captain, Ryan Shawcross.
GAMEWEEK 22 BANS
- Yakubu Aiyegbeni (BLA) – 1 Red for serious foul play (first of 3 matches)
- Luis Suàrez (LIV) – FA charge (fifth of 8 matches)
- Vincent Kompany (MCI) – 1 Red for serious foul play (third of 4 matches)
