With the restart of the Premier League season just days away, we thought it would be worth reminding ourselves of the players who are nearing a suspension or already serving a ban.
Those who keep an eye on the Suspension Tightrope widget on our homepage will be aware that several Premier League players had been racking up the yellow cards before the season was halted in mid-March, while two top-flight players will be unavailable for disciplinary reasons when football resumes.
The yellow card amnesty is not until after the completion of 32 Premier League fixtures (more on that later), after which the threshold moves up from ten to 15 yellow cards.
Players collecting ten cautions before that point will be handed a two-match ban.
Most top-flight teams have fulfilled 29 fixtures already, although there are four clubs who have played one game fewer.
CURRENTLY SUSPENDED
Jorginho (£4.9m) became the first player this season to pass the unwanted milestone of ten bookings, picking up his tenth yellow card of the campaign in the Gameweek 28 draw with Bournemouth.
The Italy international has already served one match of his two-game ban and will sit out Chelsea’s first post-hiatus fixture before returning thereafter.
Moussa Djenepo (£5.2m) will miss the first three of Southampton’s final nine fixtures having been shown a straight red card in the Saints’ match against Newcastle United in Gameweek 29.
ON NINE YELLOW CARDS
Five players are currently one booking away from a two-match ban.
Callum Wilson (£7.4m) is among that number, although a cursory glance at the Fantasy Premier League site throws up some confusion.
FPL have the Bournemouth striker marked down as having only eight cautions, one shy of his actual tally of nine above.
The discrepancy appears to have been a yellow card Wilson was shown in Gameweek 26, which wasn’t picked up by FPL at the time.
The England international was reportedly booked for dissent in the dying seconds of the Cherries’ 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, which seems to have been only noticed after the FPL scores had been finalised on that particular matchday.
The Premier League’s official site indeed has Wilson marked down as being on nine yellow cards.
The forward’s teammate on the south coast, Jefferson Lerma (£4.8m), is also one booking away from a two-match ban, although is not a well-owned Fantasy asset.
Lewis Dunk (£4.7m) is a more popular purchase, however.
The Brighton centre-back sits in 12.3% of FPL squads, making him the ninth most-owned defender in the game.
Dunk has already served a one-game ban for collecting five yellow cards in the first 12 Gameweeks of the campaign and is now just one booking short of being slapped with a two-match suspension.
Also one caution shy of a ban are Ashley Westwood (£5.5m) and Luka Milivojevic (£6.7m), two players who have taken their fair share of corners and free-kicks this season – and penalties in the Serb’s case.
ON EIGHT YELLOW CARDS
A further half a dozen players are two bookings away from a two-match ban.
Romain Saiss (£4.6m) had picked up a considerable number of owners before coronavirus stopped play, with his attacking contributions and regular starts providing Fantasy managers with a cut-price route into an improving Wolves backline.
Fellow FPL defenders Issa Diop (£4.3m) and James Tarkowski (£5.2m) are also sitting on eight yellow cards as things stand.
Tarkowski’s teammate Jeff Hendrick (£5.4m) is among three midfielders who have to dodge two cautions in their side’s next three fixtures in order to avoid a two-match suspension.
Harry Winks (£5.2m) and Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.6m) are the others.
A further 16 players, including Jack Grealish (£6.4m) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.5m), are currently on seven yellow cards, although would really have to pull out the stops in order to reach the ten-booking threshold before their teams have fulfilled 32 league fixtures.
WHEN ARE THE CUT-OFF POINTS FOR SUSPENSIONS?
The cut-off point for ten yellow cards is after a player’s team, rather than the player himself, has completed 32 league fixtures, which will be after Gameweek 32+ for all 20 clubs unless we have any further postponements.
As previously mentioned, players collecting ten bookings before that point will serve a two-game ban.
After that, the threshold is lifted to 15 yellow cards, with players handed a three-match ban if they manage that ignoble achievement by the end of the season.
Punishments for yellow card accumulation are competition-specific, whereas suspensions for dismissals cover all competitive matches.
3 years, 11 months ago
Good Friday morning all!