5.30 yellows per game in 24/25 

©TM/IMAGO

On the surface, the Premier League fixture last month in which Chelsea won 1-0 at Bournemouth may have looked pretty uneventful. However, Bournemouth being unlucky not to take the three points themselves wasn’t the big story in this record-breaking match. On that chilly Saturday evening on the south-coast, referee Anthony Taylor handed out as many as 14 yellow cards – the most ever given in a single Premier League match. The previous record was 12 – shared by the match in 2016 in which Chelsea played London rivals Tottenham in the infamous ‘Battle of the Bridge’, and a game between Wolves and Newcastle in 2010. The north London derby between Spurs and Arsenal the next day had looked like it might surpass it when seven yellows were handed out in the first 45 minutes alone – equalling the league’s record for a first half. 

In fact, that weekend (the fourth game-week of the season) set the record for the most yellow cards awarded in one game-week, with 65 given in total across the ten Premier League games. And it’s been a trend throughout the early season in this 2024/25 campaign in the English top-flight. So far this season, there has been an average of 5.30 yellow cards a game, which is as high as it has ever been in the Premier League (since the league’s re-format in 1992/93). The previous record was the season prior (2023/24), with an average of 4.28. So why are referees going to their pocket more than ever before? And could it lead to more games finishing without 22 players on the field, and in turn, taking away some of the entertainment?

The numbers behind the yellow card fest in the Premier League this season

The red cards Arsenal received to Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard in the Gunner’s matches against Brighton and Man City respectively both came from two yellow cards and on both occasions the second yellow came for ‘delaying the restart’. They were both controversial, as referees have been very inconsistent handing out yellow cards for these offences so far this campaign. If ref’s apply that law the same way they did against Rice and Trossard, the yellow and red cards could spiral out of control this term. Yet this season still leads the way for yellow cards.

The graphic above illustrates some of the main culprits. Remarkably, five players have already received four yellow cards just six games into the new season. Including two Chelsea players. That means those five players are already just one booking away from a ban. If a player receives five yellow cards in the first 19 fixtures he will miss a game, and if a player receives 10 yellows in the first 32 matches he will be suspended for two games. It seems way too early in the new campaign to already be walking a disciplinary tightrope.

Despite this influx of yellow cards, this season so far actually ranks 26th in the standings for the highest number of red cards handed out per game, with just seven reds shown at a rate of just 0.12 per game. As can be identified in the graphic above the record was ‘achieved’ in the 2005/06 season where there were as many as 76 red cards given at a rate of 0.20 per game. This term there have been just four occasions where a player has been sent off for two yellow cards, which is baffling considering there has been 318 yellows in total. It suggests referees are more lenient once a player is on a yellow card, and that players are more careful when they are already booked.

When looking at some of the tweaks to the Premier League’s officiating rules this season, one of the most significant is that non-deliberate handballs (even leading to penalties) will not be sanctioned with a yellow card but just a foul. This should of course overall lead to less yellow cards. Perhaps one of the reasons, we are seeing more yellow cards is that teams have bigger squads and are more often than not making more substitutions and making the most of the five subs they are allowed to make. This leads to players who are already on yellows being taken off, and therefore the fresh sub able to ‘take one for the team’ without it leading to a red. We are only six games into the campaign, and whether this astronomical rate of yellow cards given continues remains to be seen. If it does we could be in for a feisty season ahead.