Our Tightrope walkers were on their best behaviour over the weekend, with no new suspensions to report on so far in Gameweek 16. Indeed, the last 19 Premier League matches have failed to see anyone topple off, after last week also passed without incident.
There are now 23 players sitting just a single booking short of a one-match ban. Saturday and Sunday’s fixtures produced just two new entries – Sunderland’s Jack Rodwell was cautioned for a tackle on Watford midfielder Ben Watson during the Black Cats’ 1-0 home loss yesterday. Newcastle’s match-winner Ayoze Perez also accrued his fourth booking of the season after a late challenge on Jan Vertonghen in this afternoon’s 2-1 victory at the Lane.
Steve McClaren’s men now supply the Tightrope with three players – more than any other side – as Perez joins Vurnon Anita and Cheick Tiote on the naughty step.
There’s still time for a couple of protagonists to topple, though. Leicester’s Robert Huth and Chelsea’s Diego Costa are the men in question ahead of tomorrow evening’s match at the King Power, though the latter’s chances of taking part remain in question, bearing in mind that he’s failed to start the previous two matches.
With three more Gameweeks still to navigate until the limit is increased from five cautions to ten on New Year’s Day, there are, in theory, as many as 144 players still at risk of the Tightrope. West Brom are the club most affected, as they have ten players with at least two yellows to their name. Liverpool and United, meanwhile, have just four players in a similar situation.
Cautions for Tom Carroll and Danny Rose means that Tottenham remain at the summit for yellow cards accrued – Mauricio Pochettino’s men have been booked a total of 37 times in top-flight fixtures. West Brom (34), Liverpool (33), Newcastle (32) and Sunderland (31) are the next culpable, though in contrast, Arsenal have been the best behaved, with just 16 league bookings.
In terms of overall yellows, Stoke’s Erik Pieters and Newcastle’s Jack Colback now joined Norwich midfielder Alex Tettey at the summit with seven yellows apiece. Colback has now extended his record as the most booked player since the start of last season – he leads second-placed Lee Cattermole by 19 cautions to 17. That trio could yet fall foul of the ten card-limit in the current calendar year, then, should they be booked in their trio of remaining 2015 fixtures.
Elsewhere, Jurgen Klopp has defended the tackle by Craig Gardner that led to Dejan Lovren being stretchered off with a knee problem at Anfield:
“He played the ball, a millisecond before he hit Dejan. It was like the whole game: on the edge of everything. But he played the ball.”
Tony Pulis, meanwhile, went on the offensive and claimed the hosts were far more culpable:
“The two worst challenges in the game are James Milner’s challenge on Gardner and Martin Skrtel’s challenge on Salomon Rondon. Gardner has played the ball. Skrtel has gone right over the ball.”
Man United’s Bastian Schweinsteiger is the only player currently unavailable due to suspension. The midfielder was retrospectively slapped with a three-match ban in midweek following an elbowing incident involving West Ham’s Winston Reid in the Gameweek 15 goalless draw at Old Trafford. Having sat out yesterday’s loss to Bournemouth, Schweinsteiger will also miss the upcoming league encounters with Norwich and Stoke.
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