Three red cards in the midweek cup games, the first on Wednesday for Villarreal’s Sansone out of frustration for a hard tackle on Real Sociedad’s Aritz Elustondo with his team on their way out of the competition. Later in the evening Alavés left back Theo Hernández got his marching orders for a second bookable offence at the start of the second half against Deportivo, and he now leads our rankings with eight yellows and two reds. His assistant coach Xavier Tamarit was also red carded for disobeying the referee’s orders later on, but the Vitoria based side held on to make it through to the quarter finals.

Another three players were sent off at the weekend, including two from Granada in their bottom of the table clash with Osasuna on Sunday. Uche Agbo was the first to see red after taking out Sergio León with twenty minutes to go, and substitute Ponce only lasted 30 minutes before he picked up a second booking in injury time. A couple of hours earlier Alavés defender Feddal was also sent for an early bath after he was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Celta striker Iago Aspas at the start of the second half of their match, and all three will join another eight players on the sidelines next weekend after they picked up their fifth cautions of the season. The list includes several illustrious names, Aduríz and Beñat (Athletic Bilbao), Mascherano (Barcelona), Boateng (Las Palmas), Kiko Femenía (Alavés), Sergio Alvarez (Sporting), David García (Osasuna) and Ilarramendi (Real Sociedad). (17.01.17)

PS. Uche Agbo was given a two match ban, but Ponce was let off one of his yellow cards on appeal.

(* suspension pending disciplinary meeting decision)

Villains Yellow cards Red cards (straight) Games banned Total points
Theo Hernández (Alavés) 8 2 (1) 3* 14
Hugo Mallo (Celta) 6 1 (1) 5 13
Amorebieta (Sporting) 11 0 2 13
Raúl García (Athletic) 10 1 1 12
Uche Agbo (Granada) 6 1 (1) 3* 11
Enzo Pérez (Valencia) 7 1 (1) 2 11
Aduríz (Athletic) 8 1 2* 11
Boateng (Las Palmas) 6 1 (1) 2* 10
Petros (Betis) 7 1 2 10
Pablo Hernández (Celta) 9 0 1 10
Livaja (Las Palmas) 9 0 1 10
Sergi Gómez (Celta) 5 2 2 9
Sansone (Villarreal) 5 1 (1) 2* 9
Koke (Atlético Madrid) 7 1 1 9
Deyverson (Alavés) 8 0 1 9
Mercado (Sevilla) 8 0 1 9
Piccini (Betis) 5 1 (1) 1 8
Feddal (Alavés) 6 1 1* 8
Roncaglia (Celta) 6 1 1 8
Jaume Costa (Villarreal) 6 1 1 8
Alexis (Alavés) 7 0 1 8
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 7 0 1 8
Roque (Las Palmas) 7 0 1 8
Camacho (Málaga) 7 0 1 8
Oier (Osasuna) 7 0 1 8
Carvajal (Real Madrid) 7 0 1 8
Iñigo Martínez (Real Soc) 7 0 1 8
Vázquez (Sevilla) 7 0 1 8
Mangala (Valencia) 7 0 1 8