Premier League rule set to hand Bruno Guimaraes two-match ban for Newcastle United after Man City incident

Bruno Guimaraes is facing a second Premier League ban after being shown his ninth yellow card of the season in Newcastle United's 3-2 defeat to Manchester City.

Guimaraes was booked for a foul on Man City midfielder Mateo Kovacic in the 21st minute of the match at St James' Park. The Brazilian's ninth caution makes him the player with the most yellow cards in the Premier League this season and leaves him just one yellow card away from a two-match ban for Newcastle.

The 26-year-old has already been handed a one-match ban this season after accumulating five yellow cards in Newcastle's first 19 Premier League matches. Anthony Gordon and Kieran Trippier were also handed such suspensions.

Now Newcastle have played 21 Premier League matches, the suspension threshold moves to 10 yellow cards with a 32-match cut-off point. Any player shown 10 yellow cards up to and including a club's 32nd match of the Premier League season will be handed a two-match ban. As a result, Guimaraes has to avoid picking up another booking in each of Newcastle's next 11 league matches or else he will be handed a two-game suspension. Gordon is at risk too having picked up seven bookings already this season. When asked about the genuine possibility of being without Guimaraes for two matches, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “The last thing we need, to be honest at this moment in time is to lose anyone through suspension, but well have to cross that bridge when it comes."

The Magpies will be hoping Guimaraes manages to avoid suspension given their record without him in the side. In all seven matches the midfielder has missed since his arrival at the club almost two years ago, Newcastle have failed to win any.

Elsewhere in Newcastle's squad, Trippier, Sean Longstaff and Joelinton have been booked five times. Longstaff and Joelinton avoided a ban as they picked up their fifth bookings at Liverpool, once the 19-game threshold had passed.

Jamaal Lascelles has four bookings while Fabian Schar has three so far this season. Dan Burn and Sandro Tonali have been booked twice while Miguel Almiron, Harvey Barnes, Sven Botman, Tino Livramento, Matt Ritchie, Matt Targett, Callum Wilson, Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley and Martin Dubravka all have one Premier League booking each.

Joelinton was the only Newcastle player to serve a two-match suspension ban for Newcastle last season. The Brazilian picked up 12 bookings in total in 2022-23.

Any player shown 15 bookings over the course of a Premier League season will be handed a three-match ban. No player has ever been booked more than 14 times during a single Premier League season.