A busy weekend on the suspension tightrope has seen the eight residents of the previous Gameweek joined by seven new additions. With the loss of two unfortunate souls to suspension, we’re left with a Hallowe’en worthy band of 13 trick or treaters to tread carefully through Gameweek 10.
If you’ve been following the various Scout outlets, such as the handy sidebar widget, the detailed data of the members area or even stumbled across my twitter feed (hashtag: #suspensiontightrope), then you’ll know much of this already, but read on for the disciplinary highlights that the weekend had to offer…
Despite the upturn in goalscoring accuracy for Luis Suárez this season and his steady stream of Fantasy points, the disciplinary cloud is never far from the Uruguayan. A fourth yellow card of the campaign, picked up in the Merseyside derby (for the controversial foul on Sylvain Distin) adds him to our rogues gallery this week, just one more booking from a single match ban. Theoretically, a card received in the midweek cup tie against Swansea would therefore see Suárez suspended for the next league game (home to Newcastle).
Highlighted in the article last week, with his fourth caution collected in Gameweek 8, many thought a tactical booking for Michu was a likely occurrence last weekend but, perhaps with a higher moral regard for these things, the Spaniard completed the game untarnished and, as with Suárez, will still be available for the cup game at Anfield.
Fellow tightrope mainstay Marouane Fellaini is also present and correct on the graphic this week as he negotiated that fiery derby date unscathed and continues his Damoclean adventure into Gameweek 10. No cup game to complicate matters for the flocculent Belgian means he’ll definitely be playing ‘under the sword’ as Everton visit Craven Cottage next weekend.
Finally, West Ham defender and Fantasy favourite Winston Reid is the last name picked out from the tainted hordes. His quarter of a million ownership now also face an anxious wait to see when his fifth booking will arrive, bringing with it the customary ban – again no cup exploits for The Hammers to interfere.
On to the suspensions and we’ve seen a flurry of those this week, too. Angel Rangel and James McArthur (originally missed by Opta, but since corrected) have both falled from the high wire this week with their fifth yellow cards, jointly winning the tightrope race conveniently in time to serve out their single match suspension in the midweek Capital One Cup ties.
Also sitting out the handy cup fixtures are Branislav Ivanovic (one match ban for his dismissal in denying a goalscoring opportunity), Fernando Torres and Aston Villa’s Joe Bennett (both dismissed for two cautions resulting in a one match ban),
The longer term absentees, Stéphane M’Bia (first match of three), Cheick Tioté (second match of three) and John Terry (last of a four match ban) will all remain suspended for the upcoming return to league action.
As always, these bans can be found in our Injuries and Bans table. We’ll be updating the tightrope widget every week from this point on, and bringing you our regular article summing up the new arrivals and the suspensions being served.
