Bruno Guimaraes handed ban for Newcastle United after Premier League rule change & Arsenal incident

Guimaraes was shown his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season during Newcastle’s 1-0 win over Arsenal at St James’ Park. The Brazilian was involved in a number of bruising moments during the match before he was eventually shown a yellow card by referee Stuart Attwell in the 88th minute.

As a result, Guimaraes will miss Newcastle’s next Premier League match away to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, November 11 (5:30pm kick-off). The 25-year-old will still be available for The Magpies’ trip to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday evening (5:45pm kick-off).

After the Arsenal match, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe reacted to Guimaraes’ suspension.

“I was frustrated, not so much with Bruno but with the decision,” Howe told The Gazette. “In my opinion, Bruno is ahead of the player and he gets booked.

“I’ll have to see it again but my natural reaction was it wasn’t a booking. I think there was a lot of needless yellow cards today and with very few players available we can’t pick up suspensions. To lose Bruno for any game is a blow for us but we’ll have to deal with it.”

Guimaraes is the second Newcastle player to be suspended for a Premier League match this season after Anthony Gordon picked up five yellow cards. Any player who is shown five yellow cards before their respective club’s 20th game of the Premier League season will be handed a one-match ban.

Sean Longstaff is one booking away from being handed a suspension having picked up his fourth yellow card of the season for protesting Kai Havertz’s challenge in the win over Arsenal. Longstaff will have to avoid another yellow by matchday 20 in order to swerve a suspension.

As it stands, Newcastle’s 20th match of the Premier League season is away to Liverpool on New Year’s Day.

Elsewhere in Newcastle’s squad, Kieran Trippier has picked up three Premier League bookings while Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Sandro Tonali have picked up two each. Miguel Almiron, Joelinton, Harvey Barnes, Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Tino Livramento, Matt Targett, Callum Wilson.

Howe has previously highlighted the rule changes in the Premier League this season that has resulted in referees handing out more yellow cards.

“The rules now mean there will be more yellow cards so the referees [have] definitely tightened up over the summer in terms of discipline, time-wasting and loads of little things to the game where you can and some of our players have picked up a yellow card for nothing, or perceived nothing,” Howe said.

“More yellow cards means more suspensions so we have to be careful. But certainly, I don’t want to be taking aggression out of anyone’s game, it’s the indiscipline ones that we want to try and eradicate.”

Guimaraes will be back in Premier League action for Newcastle following the international break as they host Chelsea at St James’ Park on Saturday, November 25 (3pm kick-off).