If it wasn’t for his penchant for yellow, Blackburn’s utility man Jason Lowe would be a mere speck on the Fantasy landscape. Given that he’s been sitting on top of our Suspension Tightrope for the last few weeks, though, it’s only fair Lowe gets his day in the sun:
In the course of his 21 league appearances, and 1763 minutes, Lowe has managed to concede just 19 fouls (1 foul every 92.8 minutes). As highlighted a couple of weeks ago, that’s not a great deal compared to the 61 fouls chalked up against Grant Holt in only 1429 minutes (1 foul every 23.4 minutes).
Thanks to another caution in Saturday’s win over QPR, however, the Blackburn utility man has now accumulated 9 league cards to add to his league cup indiscretion, and those 10 bookings will land him a stern talking to and a two-match ban from the FA. Lowe will therefore be missing from Rovers’ Gameweek 26 and 27 fixtures, away at Manchester City and home to Aston Villa.
Elsewhere this gameweek, there was also an eighth yellow card for Chelsea’s Portuguese midfielder Raul Meireles, who now joins his club captain John Terry at the top of our tightrope widget. Scott Parker of Tottenham, Terry’s potential replacement in the England skipper role, earned his seventh caution of the season, as did Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne.
Parker’s latest booking is his 85th in the Premier League and now ranks him fifth on the all-time list, level with George Boateng (the Ghanain born Dutchman, once of Aston Villa and Middlesborough, now plying his trade at Nottingham Forest). He still trails Lee Bowyer (recently at Birmingham and now at Championship club, Ipswich) who amassed 101 Premier League cautions, and Kevin Davies, whose booking on Saturday brought up his ton.
Finally a nod to those returning from bans in time for the FA Cup matches this coming weekend. We should see Mario Balotelli (MCI), Yohan Cabaye (NEW) and Karl Henry (WOL) back in action, while those below -and, of course, any player seeing red in next week’s games- will sit out the next league fixture.
GAMEWEEK 26 BANS
- Gaël Givet (BLA) – 1 Red for serious foul play (second of 3 matches)
- Jason Lowe (BLA) – 10 Yellows (first of 2 matches)
- Djibril Cissé (QPR) – 1 Red for serious foul play (second of 3 matches)
- Robert Huth (STO) – 1 Red for serious foul play (last of 3 matches)
