We’re bringing you another Suspension Tightrope article as Gameweek 20 hurtles into view, with the yellow cards steadily racking up for numerous Premier League players and the threat of a one-match ban looming.
There are a grand total of 32 Fantasy Premier League assets (FPL) who are now just one booking away from a ban, while three players are red-flagged as a consequence of picking up their fifth cautions of the campaign on Boxing Day.
The yellow card amnesty is not until after the completion of a team’s 19th league fixture (more on that later), after which the threshold moves up from five to ten bookings.
CURRENTLY SUSPENDED
Christian Norgaard (£5.0m), Tyrone Mings (£5.0m) and Declan Rice (£5.1m) all reached the unwanted target of five yellow cards on Boxing Day and will miss their sides’ next match – in the case of Mings, that will be Gameweek 21.
Andrew Robertson (£7.1m) will sit out Gameweeks 20 and 21 as a result of his red card against Tottenham Hotspur a week ago, while Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) won’t be involved in Gameweek 20 after being dismissed for two bookings in the defeat to Spurs on Sunday.
ON FOUR YELLOW CARDS
Of the notable names in the above list, Conor Gallagher (£6.1m) has one more match to negotiate until the threat of a one-match ban passes, while Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) and Raphinha (£6.5m) won’t be in the clear until Gameweek 21 has been and gone – assuming there are no more postponements, of course.
Callum Wilson (£7.4m) and Javier Manquillo (£3.9m) will have seen off any danger if they avoid a booking tonight.
Again, there’s more on cut-off dates in the bottom section.
SAFE FROM A ONE-MATCH BAN
Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City fulfilled their 19th league fixture on Boxing so a handful of big names sitting on four yellow cards, namely Marcos Alonso (£5.7m), Reece James (£6.4m), Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) and Ruben Dias (£6.2m), are now in the clear.
Rodri (£5.5m) and Albert Sambi Lokonga (£4.7m) are also now out of danger.
ON THREE YELLOW CARDS
There’s less to sweat about if your player is on three bookings: some are already in the clear (assets from Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Liverpool, West Ham, Wolves, Villa, Southampton, Palace, Leeds, Newcastle and Norwich), while others just have to avoid picking up two bookings in as many Gameweeks.
There are 21 players in total on the above list of players still at risk but owners of Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m), Ivan Toney (£6.6m) and Demarai Gray (£5.5m) are unlikely to be losing any sleep over their current disciplinary statuses.
WHEN ARE THE CUT-OFF POINTS FOR SUSPENSIONS?
As mentioned in the introduction, the yellow card threshold is raised to ten after a team’s 19th league fixture.
That is not to be confused with Gameweek 19: due to the raft of postponements over the last month, only four teams have fulfilled or will fulfill their 19th league fixture in the current round of matches.
A club-by-club rundown is below (clubs in italics have already played their 19th match):
| Club | 19th League Fixture (as things stand) |
| Arsenal | GW19 |
| Aston Villa | GW21 |
| Brentford | GW21 |
| Brighton | GW21 |
| Burnley | GW23 |
| Chelsea | GW19 |
| Crystal Palace | GW20 |
| Everton | GW21 |
| Leeds | GW21 |
| Leicester | GW21 |
| Liverpool | GW20 |
| Man City | GW19 |
| Man Utd | GW21 |
| Newcastle | GW19 |
| Norwich | GW20 |
| Southampton | GW20 |
| Spurs | GW22 |
| Watford | GW22 |
| West Ham | GW20 |
| Wolves | GW21 |
The threshold for ten yellow cards is after 32 league matches, which will be April at the earliest.
Players collecting ten bookings before that point will serve a two-game ban.
Punishments for yellow card accumulation are competition-specific, whereas suspensions for dismissals cover all competitive matches.
