Sport
Tottenham face double suspension As Their Star Break Premier League rules
News Report; Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham players are on the verge of receiving their fifth yellow card of the year, which carries a one-match suspension.
Following Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Liverpool, Tottenham fans currently enjoy perusing the Premier League standings. Spurs now sit second in the Premier League standings after seven games after securing all three points in the last seconds of play after Joel Matip put Pedro Porro’s cross into his own net.
If the Lilywhites win against Luton Town in the early kickoff on Saturday, they will overtake league leaders Man City, who are only one point behind them. If the outcome favors Spurs, they might enter the second international break of the season as league leaders before Pep Guardiola’s team travels to Arsenal the following day.
First of all, though, Tottenham have to make sure they record a sixth league victory of the campaign by beating newly-promoted Luton Town. Ange Postecoglou’s men will be the outright favourites to win at Kenilworth Road but it will be a tough fixture with the Hatters registering their first Premier League win at Everton last time out.
Yves Bissouma will go into Saturday’s match in Bedfordshire walking the disciplinary tightrope after picking up his fourth yellow card of the season in the 2-1 win against Liverpool. His caution against the Reds means he is now one yellow card away from a one-match ban.
Premier League rules; state that “any player earning five bookings from his side’s first 19 Premier League matches will have to serve a one-match ban in the same competition”. Unless the Mali international can curb his tendency to pick up a yellow card after receiving one in four of the team’s first seven Premier League fixtures of the 2023/24 campaign, it does look like Postecoglou and Spurs will have to do without him for one game at some point in the not too distant future
The 27-year-old would be suspended for Spurs’ home game against Fulham on Monday, October 23, if he received a yellow against Luton. Postecoglou will not want to be without his in-form midfielder for any of the important games that Spurs have coming up against Chelsea, Aston Villa, Man City, and Newcastle United at the beginning of December. However, he would have players like Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp as options to replace Bissouma in the lineup.
Bissouma is not the only Tottenham player close to obtaining five yellow cards in the Premier League so far this season. Destiny Udogie is next behind on three cautions, with his latest yellow coming in the late victory over Liverpool.
From their opening seven league games, Tottenham had five players with two yellow cards. The players in question are Richarlison, James Maddison, Cristian Romero, Pape Matar Sarr, and Ivan Perisic, though the Croat won’t be able to serve a potential one-match suspension prior to their 19th league match of the season because of the ACL injury that will keep him out for the majority of the campaign.
Once domestic football resumes after the most recent international break, Spurs play Fulham at home and Crystal Palace away after the Luton Town match. The month of November therefore begins with Mauricio Pochettino returning to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium while leading his Chelsea team on a brief trip across the city.