2024/25 Premier League Suspensions Tracker

The Premier League is one of the best leagues in the world. It encapsulates drama, with any team at the bottom more than capable of stunning the teams at the very top. Manchester City have won four Premier League titles in a row — they are hoping to make it five this campaign — but suspensions can completely change that.

In the Premier League, yellow cards and red cards are given out. The most serious scenario would see a red card handed out and this is for when a player denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a handball, denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a foul, commits serious foul play or violent conduct, uses offensive, insulting or abusive language towards the opposition or officials and receives a second yellow card in the same match.

Meanwhile, yellow cards are less serious and are handed out due to dissent by word or action, persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game, delaying the restart of play, failure to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee’s permission, deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission and unsporting behaviour. With the Premier League now underway, here’s an outline of which players are currently suspended, which are close to a ban and who are just returning from sitting on the sidelines.

Suspended Players

Jack Stephens has had his ban extended

Jack Stephens was sent off during Southampton’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester United in the first game after the September international break. He was given his marching orders by referee Stuart Attwell in the 79th minute of the match for a poor tackle on Alejandro Garnacho. VAR assessed the on-field decision and quickly confirmed that Stephens was justifiably sent off for ‘serious foul play’.

Typically, denying a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity only warrants a one-match ban, while dissent leads to a two-match suspension. However, Stephens went further, and he was adjudged to have committed a dangerous tackle with his studs showing, so he has an automatic three-match ban.

The Saints captain had his suspension extended to five matches after he was charged by the FA for a breach of rule E3(1) – namely, using abusive and insulting language directed at the referee and his fourth official, Gavin Ward. After accepting his ban and £50,000 fine, Stephens penned a letter of contrition to the FA Regulatory Commission which read:

Suspensions for red cards are applied across all domestic competitions. Therefore, Stephens was forced to sit out the club’s subsequent EFL Cup tie against Everton as well as four top-flight matches. Russell Martin’s newly promoted Championship play-off winners won’t be able to welcome their skipper back into the fold until the end of October for a daunting trip to the home of defending Premier League champions, Manchester City. If Stephens is sent off for another red card again this season, he will receive an additional match ban on top of the automatic suspension applied.

Players at Risk of Suspension

Five yellow cards in the first half of the season will result in a one-match ban

If a player is shown five yellow cards before the 19th gameweek of the campaign – the halfway mark – they pick up an automatic one-match ban. This can’t be appealed. If 10 yellow cards are picked up before the 33rd match of the season, a player will be banned for a further two games. Typically, some fans think that yellow cards do not have any impact if they avoid being sent off, but it can create long-term problems for clubs.

Despite the Premier League only being six weeks into the new season, a glut of players are already at risk of earning a suspension for accumulation. This includes the Chelsea duo of Wesley Fofana and, most concerningly, Marc Cucurella. The unlikely star of Euro 2024 has carried his international form into his club performances, establishing himself as an undisputed starter in Enzo Maresca’s entertaining side. Ben Chilwell – the only other natural left-back in the senior squad – has been frozen out of the first team this term and may struggle to make the bench even if Cucurella does collect a suspension-inducing fifth booking.

Players Back From Suspension

One star managed to avoid a ban

Bruno Fernandes never even had to serve a suspension. The Manchester United captain was shown a straight red card for an uncontrolled swipe at James Maddison during a dismal 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur. After watching his teammates toil for the entirety of the second half, Fernandes conducted a series of post-match interviews to underscore his innocence. “Never a red card,” the Portuguese playmaker insisted.

Upon appeal, the FA belatedly agreed with Fernandes, rescinding the three-match ban that his straight red card had initially earned. Erik ten Hag will not only need his skipper on the pitch but hope that Fernandes can break out of a slump which has dragged throughout the campaign. One of the best passers in world football has endured a creative block this term, creating a pitiful tally of six chances from his first half-dozen league appearances. Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski, for comparison, teed up nine chances against United alone.

Morgan Gibbs-White could not be rescued from a controversial red card of his own. The English midfielder was sent off for a slide tackle on Brighton attacker Joao Pedro when his Nottingham Forest side held the Seagulls to a 2-2 draw in September. Referee Rob Jones initially waved the challenge away, signalling with his hands that Gibbs-White had won the ball before he quickly changed his mind.

With Gibbs-White already on a yellow card, he was sent off, sparking an eruption on the touchlines. Both managers, Nuno Espirito Santo and Fabian Hurzeler, were sent off in the aftermath. The former Wolves star missed his side’s 1-0 loss at home to Fulham last weekend – Forest’s first defeat of the campaign – but will return when they go on the road to Chelsea this Sunday.

West Ham United will also be able to welcome back a key midfielder this weekend. Four days after getting the runaround from Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson, Edson Alvarez was dismissed for two yellow cards in 10 minutes during another bleak defeat to Liverpool in the third round of the Carabao Cup. As red-card suspensions carry across domestic competitions, the Mexico international sat out West Ham’s 1-1 draw with Brentford last weekend and will be available again for the visit of Ipswich Town.