West Ham picked up a booking the earliest on average amongst London clubs in the 2024-25 Premier League season.
Across the 38 games last campaign, the Hammers received their first card on average in the 44th minute with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur a close second averaging the first card in the 46th minute, according to data from Sofascore.
Of the seven London Premier League clubs, Brentford registered their first yellow card the latest in the 50th minute.
When presented with the data, West Ham fans were not surprised they picked up the first card the quickest on average.
Lifelong West Ham fan Tom Brooke felt the Hammers faithful had a major part to play in picking up bookings.
He said: “I think it’s because we’re bad, so our fans get on the players’ backs early doors because of the expectation.
“A big tackle lifts the crowd.”
In the 2024-25 Premier League season, West Ham finished 14th with 43 points, including 17 losses, which would certainly frustrate the fans and the players into making a rash tackle.
Auditor Sam Armitage believed that certain members of the squad were more to blame for bookings rather than the overall ill-discipline of his side.
He said: “I’d say that’s more to do with player personalities rather than tactics.
“We have players like [Edson] Álvarez, [Lucas] Paquetá and Emerson who are pretty hot-headed, commit stupid fouls and get booked early on, so I think that would be the main reason.”
West Ham fan page West Ham Updates also agreed with Armitage about the poor discipline of Brazilian midfielder Paquetá.
The former Olympique Lyon player was investigated by the FA for alleged spot-fixing in a period of four matches between November 2022 and August 2023.
He was charged on May 23 2024 with four counts of spot-fixing and two of obstructing the FA’s investigation.
The midfielder is still waiting to hear the final verdict on whether he can continue to play football, facing a potential life ban from the sport.
West Ham Updates felt the allegations could have led to Paquetá picking up the most yellow cards (10) last season amongst the West Ham squad.
He said: “Paquetá’s probably got a bit of a target on his back because of all of the controversy about his yellow card investigation.
“Even if referees aren’t targeting him on purpose I think there’s still a good chance they may be harder on him because of everything that’s gone on.”
The FA and West Ham were both approached for comment.
The east London side also underwent a season of transition as they sacked manager Julen Lopetegui halfway through the season, with Graham Potter taking over for the remainder of the campaign.
West Ham Updates thought Lopetegui’s tactics and pre-match preparation contributed to West Ham registering the first card earlier in matches.
He said: “If it’s true that the players were left confused by Lopetegui’s training and his tactics on matchdays, then this would’ve impacted performances and players’ understanding of where they should be on the pitch.
“More players out of position leads to more chasing back, more fouls and more yellow cards.”
The numbers back this up as under the Spaniard’s management, the Hammers notched the first yellow card in the 41st minute on average.
Whereas under former Chelsea and Brighton manager Potter, the Hammers became more disciplined, registering the first yellow card later in matches in the 47th minute on average.
How do referees decide when to give out the first card?
The determiner in who distributes yellow and red cards is the referee, the disciplinarian of a match of football who aims to maintain control and stability of a game.
Surrey FA level-four referee Matthew Funnell is familiar with the importance he plays in ensuring a match runs smoothly, cautioning players, managers and staff as appropriate.
When it comes to his pre-match mentality, Funnell strives to remain consistent and adaptive to every match.
He said: “I go into every game the exact same.
“You get a very good idea of what tone the game is going to be played at in the first ten minutes, so I normally base my tolerance level off of that.
“However, there are definite situations, near on most, where it would be a cautionable offence in the first or last minute.
“If a tackle would be a card in the last minute, it is a card in the first.
“All it does in the early periods of the game is sets a tone for how the teams are going to play and in what manner.”
One of the stresses of being a referee is handling fans’ and players’ frustrations if a decision doesn’t go in their favour or the outcome is different to what they would’ve expected.
Funnell commented on reading the game to deal with heated moments, stating that fans shouldn’t really influence referees’ decision-making.
He said: “A reaction from players or fans can give you a decent idea of how serious a challenge can be.
“The rule of thumb is if after a big tackle the team-mates run to the player who tackled them, it’s a yellow, but if they run to the player who got tackled, it might be a red.
“For me, when the game it getting heated and/or on top of me, I just try to slow everything down.
“I try and get my assistants to take as much time as possible to do a substitution or maybe even let a player take ages for an injury or throw in or shoe laces.
“Any opportunity to calm things down I will try to take it.”
Featured image credit: diamond geezer via Flixr under Creative Commons 2.0.
