In patriotic fashion, the Saturday palette of games duly started with a red, passed through a flurry of white, and ended with the blue side of Manchester celebrating a 17th successive home league win – but this being a disciplinary round-up, we’re only interested in the first bit of that mélange.
The first red in question, in the lunchtime Emirates massacre, was shown to Blackburn defender Gaël Givet, with the former French international given his marching orders for a two-footed lunge on Robin van Persie when the score was already 3-1 to the home side. Steve Kean will now have to do without his services for the next 3 games (QPR, mci, AVL) and will hope to convince want-away club captain Chris Samba to don his boots again for the club.
In a week where the tackling laws were clarified by referees chief Mike Riley, going in with two feet was always going to be a risky strategy for Givet, but fronting up to your opponent and grabbing him around the neck as our next perpetrator managed, is on another level. The Lord of the Manor of Frodsham (or Djibril Cissé as he is more commonly known), took objection to a challenge by Wolves defender Roger Johnson and his subsequent retaliation after 34 minutes left his QPR teammates exposed. Since then, he has used his Twitter feed to apologise to the club’s fans, but will now find himself amongst them in the stands for the next three (bla, FUL, EVE).
A hat-trick of straight reds for eventual losing sides was completed in the 45th minute of Sunderland’s 1-0 win at the Britannia, as Stoke defender (and scout pick) Robert Huth was also adjudged by referee Martin Atkinson to have fallen foul of those clarified rules with a slide tackle on David Meyler that failed to collect the ball. The strong post match comments from Stoke manager Tony Pulis, suggest that an appeal may be on the cards for this one, but for the meantime, the three matches missed by Huth include the FA cup tie at Crawley Town, and Premier League matches against Fulham (a) and Swansea (H) in Gameweeks 25 and 26.
GAMEWEEK 25 BANS
- Gaël Givet (BLA) – 1 Red for serious foul play (first of 3 matches)
- Mario Balotelli (MCI) – FA Charge (last of 4 matches)
- Yohan Cabaye (NEW) – FA Charge (last of 3 matches)
- Djibril Cissé (QPR) – 1 Red for serious foul play (first of 3 matches)
- Robert Huth (STO) – 1 Red for serious foul play (first of 3 matches)
- Karl Henry (WOL) – 1 Red for serious foul play (last of 3 matches)
