Ranked! The most card-happy Premier League referees Newcastle could come up against this season

Already, we have seen 165 top flight fixtures this term, with 461 goals scored, and 499 yellow and 23 red cards handed out.

Of those, Newcastle United have been responsible for 29 bookings – the fourth highest tally in the division so far.

And when the top flight does get back under way in a just over a week’s time, the overwhelming likelihood is that we will see our 500th yellow – and maybe even bring up a quarter century of dismissals – in the next round of Premier League fixtures.

With that in mind, it seems like a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at some of the men in the middle, and to shed some light on who the most card-happy officials in the Premier League are.

Nineteen different referees have taken charge of at least one top flight match so far this term, and we’ve ranked them all based on the average number of yellow cards they have handed out over the course of 90 minutes.

Click and scroll through the pages below to read through our countdown of the busiest officials in the Premier League so far this season.

*All stats come courtesy of Whoscored.com.

** Rankings are based on average number of yellow cards distributed per 90 minutes. Red cards are not taken into consideration.