Arsenal are about to reach the halfway point in this season's Premier League as they face an in-form Manchester United side on Sunday afternoon.
With no fresh injuries reported following the 2-0 North London Derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, Mikel Arteta could have a similar squad to choose from as he aims to gain a measure of revenge on the Red Devils as they remain the only team to beat the Gunners in the league this season.
Although, the Arsenal manager might want to have a little word beforehand with Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Bukayo Saka - should they, as expected, start at the Emirates Stadium - as the trio are all walking the disciplinary tight-rope going into the Man United clash.
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As confirmed by the FA in their 'Information for Players on Disciplinary Procedures' 2022-23 season guide at the beginning of the campaign, any player who accumulates five bookings before the cut-off point of 19 matches will have to serve an automatic one-match ban.
For Saliba, he has been on four yellow cards in the Premier League and therefore a suspension risk since the 1-0 win over Leeds United back in October and was joined in the same boat by Saka who was booked during the 4-2 win at Brighton and Hove Albion on New Year's Eve.
And during the second half of the victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Gabriel became the latest Arsenal player to find himself needing to watch his step when Man United visit the capital.
With 18 games of the Premier League season played for Arsenal, it means that Gabriel, Saka and Saliba and the rest of Arteta's men have one more game to avoid going into the referee's notebook. Of course, as the campaign paused for just over a month for the World Cup, the cut-off point is this weekend and afterwards yellow card suspensions only apply to players with 10 bookings.
Now, because the Premier League's ruling is that 'yellow cards are not carried over to the EFL Cup or FA Cup', it means if any of the aforementioned trio are booked against Man United, they would be available for the FA Cup fourth-round tie with Manchester City five days later and instead miss the next league match away at Everton on February 4.
The next Arsenal players with the most yellow cards across the squad are Ben White, Granit Xhaka and Martin Odegaard on three. Then there's Gabriel Martinelli and Thomas Partey on two, with Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Eddie Nketiah on one. They can all relax at the weekend due to not being in any immediate danger of being suspended via this particular scenario whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Jesus has also been booked four times in the Premier League this season and even though the Brazilian international has been uploading positive images to social media regarding his recovery from knee surgery, by the time he returns to action he will no longer be a suspension risk.
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