One Aston Villa star is just one game away from a two-match ban after their recent defeat to Man City.
Villa are now entering the last leg of the 2023/24 season. After a brilliant campaign to date, one slip-up could turn the season sour after so much hard work.
Unai Emery’s side are on course to reach the Champions League and could still win their first major trophy this century through the Europa Conference League.
However, the first-team will have to continue their good start to the season through the upcoming matches and quickly recover from their 4-1 humbling against City.
Alongside the defeat, the was another major downside. Douglas Luiz, who didn’t cover himself in glory in Manchester, picked up his ninth booking in the Premier League. This could therefore have dire consequences for Villa throughout April.
Douglas Luiz close to a two-game suspension
In the Premier League, if you pick up nine yellow cards before the 33rd gameweek, you will pick up a two-match ban.
After the recent match against Man City, Douglas Luiz is just one card away from meeting this criteria.
Thankfully, the Brazilian just has to go through one game to avoid another yellow. Villa faces Brentford on Saturday with that game matchday 32. If the midfielder is able to avoid a booking against the Bees he will be fine.
After matchday 32, the threshold increases to 15 cards which continues until the end of the season.
However, if Douglas Luiz does pick up another card, he will be suspended for both Arsenal away and Bournemouth at home, two vital games.
Douglas Luiz is on thin ice
Villa are already in thin supply this season and cannot afford another outage this late in the campaign. The Villians struggled over recent games with captain John McGinn serving a suspension for a stupid red card against Spurs.
With Douglas Luiz now being one of the most senior members of the squad, he cannot do anything foolish like picking up a tenth yellow card on Saturday.
Emery may well be tempted to leave the midfielder on the bench just to make sure nothing could possibly go wrong.
With Champions League qualification now in Villa’s sights, everyone needs to be on their A-game if they are to get over the line.
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