Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe.placeholder image
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe. | Getty Images
Newcastle United will be without Anthony Gordon against Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe faces a few selection decisions looking ahead to Saturday’s match against Wolves at St James’ Park (3pm kick-off).
The Magpies are looking for their first win of the new season and will be without Anthony Gordon due to suspension. Gordon was shown a straight red card against Liverpool and missed the following match against Leeds United as a result.
The 24-year-old also misses this weekend as well as next weekend’s trip to AFC Bournemouth but will be available for the midweek Champions League match against Barcelona at St James’ Park as red card suspensions do not carry over into Europe.
In Gordon’s absence, Howe will face a big decision as to who starts on the left wing and indeed up front for his side on Saturday. Since Newcastle’s last match, the squad has been bolstered by the arrivals of forwards Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa from VfB Stuttgart and Brentford, respectively.
Both players have been away with their national teams during the international break so their training time with Howe and his coaching staff has been limited heading into Saturday’s match.
Newcastle will also be hoping to have Jacob Ramsey and Joelinton back in contention after recent injury concerns. Ramsey and Joelinton were forced off in recent matches against Leeds and Liverpool respectively but have since trained ahead of Saturday’s match against Wolves.
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Premier League suspension rules
While Newcastle are feeling the effects of the Premier League’s suspension rules in Gordon’s absence, they fortunately have no other players at risk of suspension in the coming weeks.
In Newcastle’s opening three matches of the Premier League season, no player has received more than one booking. Bruno Guimaraes, Dan Burn, Joelinton and Nick Pope have all picked up one yellow card.
Premier League rules state that any player who accumulates five bookings inside the opening 19 Premier League matches must serve a one-match ban. So the aforementioned players must go 16 games without picking up four bookings, while the rest of the squad must avoid five bookings over the same period.
Joelinton, in particular, will be looking to avoid suspension having missed four matches due to yellow card suspensions over the past three seasons, more than any other player.
Newcastle’s 19th match of the league season is against Burnley on December 30, as things stand, though fixtures can be subject to change.
In addition, any player who accumulates 10 bookings inside the opening 32 matches must serve a two-match ban.
After the 10 booking, 32 game threshold is passed - any player shown 15 bookings over the course of the season is handed a three-match ban. To date, no player has ever been cautioned that many times during a single Premier League campaign.
Do bookings & bans impact the cup competitions?
As mentioned, domestic suspensions do not carry over into European competitions. But red card suspensions apply across all domestic cup competitions.
It’s the reason why Gordon ended up missing the Carabao Cup final and two Premier League matches following his red card against Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup.
But yellow card suspensions only apply to the competition in which they are received. So a player suspended for a match after picking up five bookings in the Premier League must serve that suspension in a league match.
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