Sports

Premier League yellow-card suspensions: which players are at risk over the festive period?

csDecember 27, 202506 mins

The festive season is the busiest time of the year in the Premier League. There are, however, multiple players at risk of missing games due to their accumulation of yellow cards.

A player will receive a one-match suspension if they receive a total of five yellow cards in the first 19 rounds of games — the halfway point of the league season.

This season, the 19th matchday takes places across December 30 and January 1, with all 20 Premier League clubs playing four fixtures over a period of 13 days or fewer.

There are four players who are suspended for the 18th round of fixtures: Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai, Sunderland midfielder Luke O’Nien, and Tottenham Hotspur duo Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero.

Spurs playmaker Simons will also miss the 19th and 20th matchdays, due to his three-game suspension as a result of his red card against Liverpool in his side’s 17th game.

Simons was shown a red card against Liverpool before Christmas (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Who is close to a ban?

There are currently 33 players across the league who have received four yellow cards, and are one further booking away from a suspension.

Some of them, including Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz, are unlikely to play over the festive period due to injury.

Several others will not pick up a suspension due to their participation in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Carlos Baleba alongside Sunderland duo Reinildo and Noah Sadiki are currently at the tournament in Morocco.

For the other players on four yellows, a fifth bookable offence would lead to a one-match suspension.

AFC Bournemouth

Alex Jimenez, Antoine Semenyo

Arsenal

None

Aston Villa

Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara

Brentford

Nathan Collins

Brighton & Hove Albion

Carlos Baleba, Ferdi Kadioglu, Mats Wieffer

Cash is among the players at risk (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Burnley

None

Chelsea

None

Crystal Palace

Daniel Munoz

Everton

Vitaly Mykolenko, James Garner, James Tarkowski

Fulham

None

Leeds United

Ethan Ampadu, Jayden Bogle

Liverpool

Ibrahima Konate

Konate has received four league yellow cards this term (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Manchester City

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Nico Gonzalez, Bernardo Silva

Manchester United

Patrick Dorgu

Newcastle United

Bruno Guimaraes

Nottingham Forest

Nikola Milenkovic, Morato, Neco Williams

Sunderland

Enzo Le Fee, Reinildo, Noah Sadiki, Granit Xhaka

James Tarkowski and Granit Xhaka in action

Everton’s Tarkowski and Sunderland captain Xhaka are both one booking away from suspensions (Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar Via Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur

Rodrigo Bentancur, Pedro Porro, Richarlison, Micky van de Ven

West Ham United

None

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Andre, Matt Doherty

Who else is at risk?

There are 49 players who are currently on three yellow cards, and due to the volume of matches over the festive season, several are at risk of accumulating two more yellow cards and being at risk of suspension.

Tallies are cleared at the end of the 19th round of matches but if players receive 10 yellow cards in total by the 32nd round of games (April 11-12) they will be suspended for two matches.

AFC Bournemouth

Jaidon Anthony, Justin Kluivert, Adrien Truffert

Arsenal

Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi

Aston Villa

John McGinn

Brentford

Jordan Henderson, Michael Kayode, Dango Ouattara, Igor Thiago, Yehor Yarmoliuk

Brighton & Hove Albion

Jan Paul van Hecke, Joel Veltman

Burnley

Zian Flemming, Hannibal Mejbri