Having seen a lot of winners and knowing a lot of you enjoyed my card predictions for last weekend’s Dundee Derby, I thought I’d take a look at some of the stand-out games across the UK and Europe for some cards angles. There’s plenty of games that look good for booking points and player specific fancies and where better to start than Manchester United and Mike Dean? A love story as old as time itself.

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Manchester United v Aston Villa

Moved to an earlier kick-off time to accommodate a Courteeners gig, the Man United v Villa game features two men who are showing maybe you can be 19 forever, Mike Dean and Cristiano Ronaldo. The two are undoubted legends in their fields and though most of the column inches have been dominated by Ronaldo since his return to Old Trafford, it’s the iconic ref that could steal the headlines for this one.

He handed out the most yellows and the most red cards of last season’s Premier League referees and as we all know he has a habit of rising to the occasion. He had the sixth best record for penalties awarded per game and with the likes of Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Ronaldo likely to be weaving around the Villa penalty area that could be something worth keeping an eye on.

Looking at specific players that could be good picks for cards, my eyes are immediately drawn towards the visitors. Matty Cash will have a lot of talent buzzing around him, with Paul Pogba, Greenwood and Ronaldo all likely to be in the vicinity of Villa’s right-back. He committed 1.33 fouls per 90, picking up eight yellows in the process. His teammates Douglas Luiz and, if starting, Ashley Young could also find themselves in Mr Dean’s notebook too.

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Inter Milan v Atalanta

If you thought Mike Dean had a penchant for stealing the limelight and dishing out the cards, well let me introduce you to Fabio Maresca. The Italian referee averaged a whopping SIX yellow cards a game in last season’s Serie A! His 14 matches officiated saw a staggering 84 yellows and four reds.

That’s phenomenal record and given the amount of attacking talent on display at the San Siro for this one it could be yet another card-heavy display from Maresca. Inter striker Lautaro Martinez is a foul magnet and fouler and with Atalanta keen to play out from the back he could be an interesting outside bet at 3.5 on Paddy Power. Marten de Roon and Marcelo Brozovic are more likely to be in the thick of it and will have plenty of tricky midfielders in and around them, which could be the perfect recipe for cards.

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Hibs v St. Johnstone

There aren’t any cards markets out at the time of writing for this one but I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for them when they are priced. Ref John Beaton has handed 6.67 yellows per 90 this season, and though they’ve largely all been fair, he could potentially keep that average up this weekend.

The main man to look out for when looking at players to be fouled in this one is Martin Boyle. He’s so tricky and quick that opponents are often reduced to fouling him to limit his significant ability, and that’s a task likely to be done by Callum Booth and Jamie McCart on Sunday. Liam Craig and David Wotherspoon are also frequent foulers and tend to find themselves in bother. Not many from Hibs really stand out for cards but it might be a case of in-plays for them, with St. Johnstone being a s stodgy side to play against their opponents can often get caught up in it, as we saw with Rangers earlier in the season.

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Arsenal v Tottenham

The first of two huge derbies across Europe on Sunday afternoon and with neither Arsenal nor Spurs in great nick we could see them resort to kicking lumps out of each other, with the lack of quality in both XIs. Craig Pawson is one of the more card-happy refs in England too which is a nice bonus.

He handed out the 4^th most yellows per 90 in the league last year and I’m fairly confident in thinking we’ll see a fair few dished out at the Emirates this weekend. Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey are the two most obvious cards from Arsenal but if you’re looking for a little more value, Alex Lacazette may be a good shout if he gets some meaningful game time, he’s foul heavy but I’d wait for confirmed team news as he looks like he could be more of a bit-part player this season. As for Spurs, Cristian Romero picked up a whopping 10 yellows in just 31 Serie A games for Atalanta last season but he’ll be very short for one this weekend. Oliver Skipp was fairly card happy with Norwich in the Championship and he’s been right in amongst for Spurs this year, picking up two in five Premier League games.

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Lazio v Roma

What a game for cards this promises to be, it’s a wee bit annoying that this kicks off at a similar time as the North London Derby as the Rome derby is usually a good watch. The last five Rome derbies in terms of cards given out reads as: 4, 9, 7, 7, 8. Wow. Marco Guida is in charge of this one and his average of 4.2 yellows a 90 is more than handy, but the occasion being far more important than the actual referee for this one. The two sides themselves are averaging just a touch under two yellows a game this season but that’ll likely have risen come the end of the weekend.

Card fiend Lorenzo Pellegrini is annoyingly suspended for this one as he’s usually a banker for a card in a friendly, let alone a derby like this. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Nicolo Zaniolo and Bryan Cristante are three players who I think could step up in Pellegrini’s absence and get a card for any number of reasons in a tense derby like this one.

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