The current 2023/24 season is predicted to be the ‘dirtiest Premier League season in history’ with close to 100 red cards projected to be shown by the end of the season.
Premier League chiefs implemented a stricter officiating threshold in the summer break, seeing more yellow cards handed out for time-wasting instances, as the extended added time was brought in to manage this as well. These new laws have seen a rise in yellow cards and the amount of red cards dished out has also shot up.
At the weekend alone, Liverpool saw Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota controversially sent off against Tottenham Hotspur, to add to Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister’s red cards earlier on in the season for the Reds – with the latter’s rescinded after an appeal. While Moussa Niakhate was also sent off on the weekend for Nottingham Forest.
READ MORE: Alex Scott has 'heated row' with Dan Walker at charity bash after Football Focus spat
READ MORE: Bukayo Saka injury update after Arsenal's worrying blow ahead of Man City clash
Research from Bonus Code Bets showed that after just seven matchdays so far this season, there have been 17 red cards shown at 0.25 per game, with a massive five yellow cards shown per game – with 339 awarded. Therefore, at this trajectory, the current season looks set to smash the disciplinary record for the most red and yellow cards, topping 2005/06 – which is currently the dirtiest season in the top-flight since the Premier League began.
During the 05/06 campaign, in which Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea lifted the league for the second time in consecutive years and conceded just 22 goals, a record 75 red cards were shown at 0.197 per game, but the yellow card count pales in significance when compared to previous campaigns, with 1171 yellow cards shown at 3.082.
Do you think the current Premier League season will be the dirtiest on record? Let us know in the comments section.
The most yellow cards shown in a single season came in the 1998/99 season – Manchester United’s treble winning year – seeing 1416 bookings totted up at 3.726 per game. That season also saw the second most red cards in a completed season with 73 – just two less than the leading 05/06 campaign.
A major talking point regarding and often criticising red cards in the top-flight comes through VAR’s intervention, but the research actually shows that seasons where VAR was used saw fewer red cards. In VAR’s maiden campaign in the 2019/20 season, there were 44 red cards at 0.116 per game – the eighth lowest of any Premier League season.
The following years also see surprisingly low findings, with the 2020/21 season seeing a rise to 48 at 0.126 per game, whilst the 2021/22 season dropped to 43 red cards and last year’s 2022/23 campaign saw the second-lowest on record, with just 30 red cards in 380 games.
Source: Read Full Article