Two Newcastle United fixtures – In top four Premier League fixtures for total red cards | OneFootball

Which Premier League fixtures produce the most red cards.

Who are the top tier clubs that when they come together, dismissals are always likely?

This has become very topical due to Wednesday night.

Everton v Liverpool and the very last derby at Goodison Park.

Michael Oliver ended up having to get serious use out of his red card.

The Merseyside derby was already well ahead of the rest but now with 25 red cards, when Liverpool and Everton meet, it is now seven dismissals ahead of any of the other Premier League fixtures in this PL era.

The Premier League branding of the top tier first came into place for the 1992/93 season, so 25 red cards is pretty good going for the scouser derby in 33 years.

Interesting to look at the other Premier League fixtures that have produced the next most red cards in recent decades.

OptaJoe on Twitter – 13 February 2025:

‘There have been 25 red cards in Merseyside derbies in Premier League history – the most dismissals of any fixture in the history of the competition. Bedlam.

25 Everton v Liverpool

18 Liverpool v Man Utd

17 Everton v Newcastle

16 Liverpool v Newcastle

16 Arsenal v Spurs’

I think a few things to note here.

All of these other clubs have been in the Premier League for all of the seasons, whereas Newcastle United have been absent for three of them – 1992/93 and the two Mike Ashley relegations, so also spending 2009/10 and 2016/17 outside the top tier.

Then you have the fact that the other three in this top four/five are all derbies, the ones that don’t involve Newcastle United.

The North London and Merseyside derbies, plus of course the Man U v Liverpool ‘derby’, which both clubs see as their biggest matches of the season.

Then of course you have this ‘coincidence that both Newcastle United fixtures on this list of most red cards, are the two scouse clubs!

I don’t have the time (or inclination) to go and dig deeper to find out how many red cards have been awarded to Newcastle United, compared to Liverpool and Everton when playing us.