In the Suspension Tightrope, we look at the players close to a ban, already suspended or returning from the naughty step in Gameweek 17.
HOW MANY BOOKINGS RESULT IN A BAN – AND WHEN ARE THE CUT-OFF POINTS?
We’ve taken the above table from the Football Association website. It details the cut-off points for the various yellow card thresholds.
The one we’re concerned about right now is the five-caution mark. This is an unwanted target that Premier League players will have to avoid for their team’s first 19 league matches.
Punishments for yellow card accumulation are competition-specific, whereas suspensions for dismissals cover all competitive matches.
ON FOUR YELLOW CARDS
There are seven new additions to the 25-strong list. These include Antoine Semenyo (£7.5m), Bruno Guimaraes (£7.0m), Pedro Porro (£5.3m) and Matty Cash (£4.9m) – all players with double-digit ownerships.
Boubacar Kamara (£4.9m), Reinildo (£3.9m) and Matt Doherty (£4.4m) also joined the table above. Reinildo won’t get a chance to get a fifth booking before Gameweek 20, however, as he’s away at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
On a similar-ish theme, Daniel Munoz (£5.9m), on four bookings since Gameweek 12, is going to be injured well past the Gameweek 19 cut-off.
Time will tell if Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.7m) is fit enough to feature before that point.
ON THREE YELLOW CARDS
There are 47 others who have a bit more breathing space on three yellow cards.
They’d have to be booked in two of the next three Gameweeks to pick up a ban.
Micky van de Ven (£4.6m), Marc Cucurella (£6.2m), Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m), Igor Thiago (£7.2m) and Phil Foden (£8.8m) are among the well-owned names on here.
SUSPENDED IN GAMEWEEK 17
Four players picked up their fifth yellow cards of 2025/26 in Gameweek 16.
They were Casemiro (£5.5m), Yerson Mosquera (£4.3m), and Brighton and Hove Albion pair Lewis Dunk (£4.5m) and Diego Gomez (£4.9m).
Luke O’Nien (£4.0m) still has two matches to go of a three-match ban, meanwhile.
And Hannibal Mejbri (£4.8m) is only two games through a four-match suspension for misconduct – but as he’s off to AFCON, he’ll serve the rest of his ban while in Morocco.
Mykhailo Mudryk (£4.9m) remains indefinitely suspended by the FA.
BACK FROM A BAN IN GAMEWEEK 17
Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m), Conor Bradley (£5.0m), Kyle Walker (£4.4m), Kevin Schade (£7.0m) and Lucas Pires (£3.8m) all return from one-match bans in Gameweek 17.
And Lewis Cook (£4.9m) and Moises Caicedo (£5.7m) are back from three-game suspensions.
