As ever in the busy festive season, the games arrive thick and fast, and with them come the inevitable yellow cards and ill-timed suspensions. As of Boxing Day, though, there are just 180 minutes left for players to negotiate before the threshold is increased from five yellows to 10 (and the sanction from one match to two) on January 1. Unfortunately for some, 2014 didn’t come soon enough, as their fifth yellows duly arrived over the weekend’s action.
At Selhurst Park, not one, but two men fell foul of the Suspension Tightrope, and will spend Boxing Day watching from the stands. Old favourite Cheick Tioté was the first to fall, troubling the referee’s notebook just after the hour mark for a foul on Joel Ward. The Newcastle midfielder’s indiscretion was his fifth yellow this term and his 38th in just three and a half seasons in the Premier League – a true Tightrope stalwart.
Meanwhile, following him onto the ban list later in the game was the Eagles budget striker Marouane Chamakh. The Moroccan ensured he’d follow this week’s blank with another one, but he still has some way to go to match Tioté’s output – despite arriving in England in the same summer as the Ivorian destroyer, Chamakh has accrued a rather more respectable 11 yellow cards.
Another to have filled his quota of bookings this weekend, and joining Tioté and Chamakh in missing Gameweek 18, is our longest-serving Tightrope resident. Having watched team-mate Fabian Delph return from suspension and pick up his sixth booking on Saturday, Villa midfielder Ashley Westwood finally succumbed to a one-match suspension on his ninth game balancing on the high wire. Westwood’s longevity certainly gives hope to both Premier League and Fantasy managers distracted by the card counts of their charges and fearing the worst.
Completing the bans for this week was the rock at the heart of Sunderland’s new-found defensive resolve, Wes Brown. The Black Cats have been much improved at the back, with four clean sheets in seven attributed to Brown’s return to fitness but, when faced by Ricky van Wolfswinkel en route to the corner flag last Saturday, Brown lost his head and launched two-footed at the Dutchman’s legs. There was only one likely outcome and referee Martin Atkinson duly dished a straight red that will see Brown miss the entire holiday schedule. Sunderland’s promising clean sheet chances at Everton and Cardiff and home to Aston Villa in the next three games suddenly don’t look quite so enticing without him.
Jack Wilshere and Paulinho remain on the sidelines form Gameweek 18. The pair serve the last of their respective two- and three-match bans before returning for the weekend’s round of matches, whilst Chelsea’s Michael Essien will, of course, be available for selection once this evening’s match at the Emirates has passed.
Elsewhere amongst the weekend’s early Christmas cards, there were a smattering of fourth yellows, with Brown’s Sunderland team-mate Seb Larsson, Ciaran Clark of Aston Villa, Stoke City’s Marc Wilson and Billy Jones of West Brom all now finding themselves listed on the bulging Tightrope widget. A 27-strong band now head into the last two games of the year attempting to avoid the yellow card that will tip them over the edge.
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