There was a moment midway inside the second half of Tottenham's defeat against Manchester City where Rodrigo Bentancur came very close to bringing Jeremy Doku down. City looked to hit Spurs at speed but the Belgian managed to stay on his feet and race away from the midfielder following their tussle for the ball on the halfway line.
As Bentancur was already on a yellow card, Ange Postecoglou immediately decided to substitute his midfielder rather than run the risk of him seeing red and earn a one-match ban in the process. Bentancur has already spent a chunk of the season on the sidelines due to two separate suspensions and his boss didn't want him to miss out again during a vital period for the north London club.
Bentancur's second suspension of the campaign all came about after obtaining five yellow cards from Tottenham's first 19 games of the season, thus seeing him miss the Newcastle United defeat in January in the process. The next cut-off point for a suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards is not too far away now that 27 Premier League games have passed.
Under The FA's rules, players who receive a total of 10 yellow cards in their side's first 32 Premier League matches receive a two-match suspension. Will Hughes of Crystal Palace and Fulham's Sasa Lukic have already achieved that feat and will now miss two games for their respective clubs.
In terms of Tottenham, Postecoglou looks to be in a really good position to avoid any player picking up a two-match ban for 10 yellow cards. Bentancur currently leads the way on six, with the player's only caution in the league since his ban for the Newcastle game coming on Wednesday evening against Manchester City.
In order to be banned for two games, Bentancur would need to receive four yellow cards in Tottenham's next five league fixtures against Bournemouth, Fulham, Chelsea, Southampton and Wolves. Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and James Maddison are then behind Bentancur in the yellow card standings for Tottenham after obtaining five apiece.
For the trio to be banned for the Nottingham Forest and Liverpool games in late April, they would all need to be booked in each of Tottenham's next five league fixtures. Tottenham could lose players to suspension for red cards over the next month or so but they look on course to avoid bans for ten yellows unless they start picking them up at an alarming rate.
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