In-form Arsenal man and Chelsea trio among 29 Premier League players one booking away from a ban

Twenty-one Premier League players have already managed to get themselves suspended this season for racking up five yellow cards within the first half of the season.

The most high-profile such cases will be seen this week, with Rodri and Jack Grealish both missing for Manchester City against Aston Villa after bookings in the silliness against Spurs on Sunday. Also a special shoutout here to Nicolas Jackson who managed to be suspended for the seventh game of Chelsea’s season after getting five bookings in six games as a centre-forward, including one for standing too close to a free-kick against Aston Villa just after Mauricio Pochettino had stressed the importance of avoiding cheap yellow cards. Lovely stuff.

But there are currently 29 further players sitting one booking from missing a game during The Busy Festive Period. Some of them are absolutely nailed on to get themselves suspended very, very soon. Your Destiny Udogies, Your Lewis Dunks, the Ashley Youngs Of This World. And Matty Cash, obviously. Others – like, say, Kai Havertz – might be able to keep themselves out of trouble with a bit of care and attention. Get to 19 games and you’re golden – unless you get 10 bookings before the 32nd game. Looking at you, Nicolas.

Anyway, here’s a full rundown of all 29 players in imminent danger…

Arsenal – Kai Havertz
The rapidly improving German forward should be able to keep himself out of trouble for a bit, while Gabriel Jesus is the only other Gunner to have even reached three bookings after his yellow amid the Luton chaos. They’re a well-behaved bunch, though, on the whole: Ben White and Eddie Nketiah are the only others with even two Premier League bookings this season.

Aston Villa – Matty Cash, Douglas Luiz, Lucas Digne
Major beneficiaries of the suspension rules this week against City, but Villa could find the shoe on the other foot pretty soon. Especially if their starting full-backs and crucial central midfielder are silly enough to collect their fifth bookings in the same game. Don’t do that, lads. Still, at least Manchester City are not the sort of team you might end up getting unavoidably booked against. They’ve also got John McGinn, Nicolo Zaniolo and Jhon Duran bubbling under on three yellows.

Bournemouth – None
Philip Billing, Marcos Senesi and Neto have all managed three yellows. Good effort for a keeper, that.

Brentford – Kristoffer Ajer
Christian Norgaard and Aaron Hickey have already hit the five-yellow barrier, with centre-back Ajer just behind and Frank Onyeka and Saman Ghoddos on three each.

Brighton – Lewis Dunk
Sat out the defeat at Chelsea after a red card against Nottingham Forest and odds-on for another suspension given one booking in the next five games would be enough. James Milner and Kaoru Mitoma – both on three – could yet find themselves in bother before the cut-off.

Burnley – Charlie Taylor
Josh Cullen and Jordan Beyer have already reached five, with Charlie Taylor now in the red zone after a fourth booking of the season in the defeat at Wolves this week. Sander Berge is on three.

Chelsea – Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Raheem Sterling
They love a booking, do Chelsea. Nicolas Jackson is the Premier League’s most cautioned man this season, Marc Cucurella has already got to five and missed the Brighton game despite only playing seven times, while key players Fernandez, Caicedo and Sterling are all on the edge. Throw in Cole Palmer and – somehow, in between injuries – even Ben Chilwell on three and you’ve got a lot of yellow cards.

Crystal Palace – Jordan Ayew
Too many strikers getting themselves on this list. Unnecessary. Joel Ward’s three bookings in 13 games feels more understandable.

Everton – Ashley Young, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Jarrad Branthwaite
Some pretty significant Dycheballers on the edge here, with Idrissa Gueye also not quite safe on three. Jordan Pickford’s timewasting housery is a known quantity, but even so it seems unlikely he’s about to collect three more bookings in the next five games so that should be fine.

Fulham – Antonee Robinson
They’ve already been without Joao Palhinha for the 3-2 win over Wolves after gathering five yellows. Robinson is their only player in imminent danger, but Andreas Pereira (3) needs to be slightly careful.

Liverpool – None
Alexis Mac Allister had to sit out the 3-0 win over Brentford, but Liverpool’s right-back-plus Trent Alexander-Arnold is the only player under any threat of joining him on the naughty step before the midway point having picked up three cautions.

Luton – Marvelous Nakamba, Tom Lockyer, Issa Kabore
With three more players on three yellow cards – Thomas Kaminski, Tahith Chong and Jacob Brown – Luton are up there with Chelsea, Sheffield United and Wolves on the ‘stop f***ing about’ charts.

Manchester City – None
For the big clubs, there’s the possibility to try and game this suspension system slightly. To try and pick up that fifth booking in such a way that it takes you out of a game where it’s unlikely to matter and thus wipe the slate clean. Or, if you’re Manchester City, you can instead have Rodri and Jack Grealish collect daft bookings in a madness against Tottenham that means they miss Aston Villa away. They did not understand the assignment. Still, at least there’s nobody else in imminent danger, with Bernardo Silva the only man on three.

Manchester United – Bruno Fernandes
He just cares too much, if anything. Andre Onana and Antony each have three yellow cards.

Newcastle – Kieran Trippier, Sean Longstaff
Another club with lots of bookings and it’s been pretty costly already. Anthony Gordon sat out the 2-2 draw at West Ham, Bruno Guimaraes the 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth. Sub-optimal. Two more pretty important players are just a game away from adding to the list, although Sean Longstaff needs to get back from injury before he starts worrying about anything else. Jamaal Lascelles and Joelinton are both on three and therefore just need to be a touch wary.

Nottingham Forest – Ibrahim Sangare, Orel Mangala
Midfielders get a lot of Nottingham Forest’s bookings, it turns out. Morgan Gibbs-White is also up there on three. Although so too is Ola Aina to slightly spoil it.

Sheffield United – Anel Ahmedhodzic, Oliver Norwood, Jack Robinson
We’ll go ahead and say it’s not at the top of Sheffield United’s list of problems, but three players one booking away from suspension with another group of four players with three to their name isn’t exactly ideal for the new manager steering this wreck of a team through the Busy Festive Period.

Tottenham – Destiny Udogie
Yves Bissouma has already served two suspensions this season having picked up five individual yellows and a pair of them against Luton. Udogie faces the same fate and, let’s be honest, this one is definitely going to happen. If only there were a word for something that is definitely going to happen because the fates will it. Pierre Emile Hojbjerg has three as does the currently injured Pape Sarr. Cristian Romero only having two bookings before he lost the plot against Chelsea is legitimately one of the season’s standout stats.

West Ham – None
The Hammers have no players currently at immediate risk of suspension, although back-slapping congratulations for that should be limited given part of the reason is that Emerson Palmieri, Edson Alvarez and Lucas Paqueta have already got there. Vladimir Coufal on three is the only player who needs to be particularly careful over the coming weeks, but West Ham are one of the teams at most risk of the 10-booking bans kicking in later in the season.

Wolves – Hee-chan Hwang, Rayan Ait-Nouri
But the Hammers have nothing on Wolves. Not only do Wolves have two players teetering on the precipice, but they’ve got four players who’ve already served bans and two more players sitting on three bookings.