There are some red cards in football which prompt a burning sense of injustice — and some, after time has passed, which just prompt disbelief. Or, better yet, hilarity.
Some dismissals are unlucky, some are well-deserved, but the rare and more interesting subset are the purely bizarre.
Fans have already been treated to three of those in the Premier League this season.
This article is about strange moments from players, rather than those that the match officials got badly wrong.
For example, the mistaken identity red card involving Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at Stamford Bridge in March 2014 does not feature, as bad a decision as that was.
From hair-pulling to handball and friendly fire to full-on head loss, these are 10 of the silliest red cards in Premier League history.
Everton’s six minutes of madness, 2026
Generally, a red card filed under “bizarre” occurs every few matchweeks in the Premier League — so what a rare treat to see two in six minutes at the end of Everton’s 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday.
Fans of the women’s game will be able to tell you straight away that hair-pulling is an automatic red card offence — see Kathrin Hendrich’s dismissal for Germany in their 2025 European Championship quarter-final against France, or the straight red shown to West Ham United’s Ines Belloumou for the same offence against Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson in September.
It crops up far less often in the men’s game, for obvious reasons. Everton’s goalscorer Michael Keane clearly forgot that little-used part of the rulebook when he gave Tolu Arokodare’s locks a tug and was sent off after a VAR review in the 83rd minute. Everton have appealed against the decision.
Jack Grealish showed a little too much solidarity. The on-loan Manchester City winger picked up a yellow card for his complaints over the red card.
Three minutes later, and still smarting with referee Thomas Kirk, he sarcastically applauded when a free-kick was given his way. That led to an automatic second yellow, and Grealish followed Keane to the dressing room.
Steven Gerrard’s 38-second red card, 2015
Continuing on the themes of rapid reds, Gerrard’s appearance in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United was fairly unique.
The Liverpool captain was introduced as a half-time substitute in a March 2015 meeting between the two at Anfield, with his side trailing 1-0. On his 30th and final appearance in the historic fixture, would Gerrard create a memorable moment?
Yes, but not as he would have hoped. After the restart, it took less than a minute for challenges to start flying in. Gerrard responded to a strong tackle from Ander Herrera by stamping on the Spanish midfielder. Gerrard promptly received a straight red, and later apologised to his team-mates and Liverpool fans.
The backpass rule breaks Simon Tracey, 1992
The phrase “panic stations” comes to mind. The backpass rule, where goalkeepers cannot deliberately handle a ball passed back to them by a team-mate, was introduced in 1992 to improve the pace of the game.
In this case, it certainly provided spectators with plenty of entertainment. In the early days of the rule, in September 1992, Sheffield United goalkeeper Tracey became its poster child. He received a pass and tried to dribble past an onrushing Tottenham Hotspur player.
He instead ended up running the ball out for a throw-in, attempted unsuccessfully to wrestle it back from a ballboy, and then flattened the Spurs player who was trying to take the throw-in with Tracey out of position. The linesman Tracey had charged past to rugby tackle his opponent had a front-row seat. Unsurprisingly, the ‘keeper was sent off.
Steven Taylor’s goalkeeping heroics, 2005
A good save, to be fair, but not one an outfielder is allowed to make. Newcastle United defender Taylor was the last man standing against Aston Villa’s Darius Vassell as he bore down on an empty net.
Taylor sacrificed himself to keep the score at 1-0, blocking Vassell’s shot with his hand. He is not the first or last outfield player to be forced into goalkeeping action, but he made his dismissal memorable by sinking to the ground as if he had been shot, apparently trying to make out he had been hit on the torso rather than the hand.
Referee Barry Knight was not impressed, and Taylor’s theatrics were not enough to keep him on the pitch. But that was not even the game’s most famous red card…
Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer’s civil war, 2005
A pair of red cards that remain almost unique in Premier League history. Supporters might get behind one of their own being sent off for standing up to an opponent — but Bowyer and Dyer came to blows with each other in that 3-0 defeat (at 2.38 of the above video).
As The Athletic outlined in a detailed look back at that day, in some ways, tensions behind the scenes meant a fight had been brewing. But the way it exploded on the pitch and the fallout, with a hastily-arranged press conference — where both Dyer and Bowyer were hauled in front of the media like schoolboys being sent to the headteacher’s office — was unprecedented.
Ricardo Fuller slaps Andy Griffin, 2008
This did not really match the spectacle of Dyer and Bowyer’s fight, mostly because team-mates were quicker to break things up, but Fuller’s red card for slapping his Stoke City captain is another classic of the genre.
Shortly after West Ham’s Carlton Cole had made it 1-1, replays show Griffin and Fuller ambling towards each other — a clearly unhappy, but relatively unremarkable exchange, until Fuller reached out and around the team-mate separating them to slap his captain in the face.
Stoke lost the game 2-1. Griffin later described it as a “heat-of-the-moment argument” in his programme notes, and they appeared to bury the hatchet, playing together for Stoke until Griffin left in January 2010.
Fuller later told BBC Radio Stoke it “made us stronger as a unit”. Perhaps trust falls in training would have been a better idea.
Idrissa Gueye lashes out, 2025
It was a 17-year gap to the next time anyone was sent off for striking a team-mate in the Premier League, and Gueye’s red card at Old Trafford in November paled in comparison to the examples above. Gueye and Keane became frustrated with each other in the 13th minute.
After some pushing and shoving, Gueye slapped his team-mate. The only saving grace would have been if the force used was deemed ‘negligible’, but referee Tony Harrington did not think so.
Manager David Moyes said the squad moved on quickly, adding: “We want passion. We don’t always want it in the style it showed up on Monday night but we certainly want that passion and that commitment from all the players.” Everton going on to win 1-0, courtesy of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s effort, certainly helped soften the blow.
Cesc Fabregas blasts the ball at Chris Brunt, 2015
This is one Fabregas can look back on and laugh now — but the former Chelsea, Arsenal and Spain midfielder’s antics in this game summed up a rare off day for Chelsea in the 2014-15 season. West Bromwich Albion beat Jose Mourinho’s already crowned champions 3-0 in May 2015, despite playing much of the game with 10 men.
Tony Pulis’ side were ahead through Saido Berahino when referee Mike Jones had to calm down a crowd in the box. If Fabregas, nearest to the loose ball on the other side of the area, intended to hit Chris Brunt on the head, it was a pinpoint cross.
More likely than not, he was bored with the ongoing confrontation and did not think too hard about where the ball would land as he booted it into the crowd of players. Chelsea went on to lose 3-0, one of only three defeats they suffered in that title-winning season.
Youssuf Mulumbu’s pinpoint pelter, 2013
Now this one certainly was intentional, and delivered with impressive accuracy, too.
With West Brom losing 3-1 to West Ham in stoppage time in a March 2013 game, Mulumbu was decidedly not in the mood when Gary O’Neil cheekily tried to tug him back as Mulumbu tried to break out of his own half.
Before referee Andre Marriner could even blow his whistle, Mulumbu quite literally took matters into his own hands, picking up the ball and punting it hard at O’Neil.
No real harm was done to the West Ham man andrecently-appointed Strasbourg coach, and Mulumbu was sent off.Gabriel Martinelli’s ultra-efficient double yellow, 2022
“I’ve never seen something like it,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said after Arsenal’s 1-0 win against Wolves in February 2022. The Spaniard was not talking about Gabriel’s winning goal, but Martinelli’s rare feat of being shown three cards — two yellow, and the resultant red, in the space of a few seconds.
At 1-0 up, Martinelli shoved Daniel Podence to try to delay a throw-in. Referee Michael Oliver played advantage, and Martinelli, giving chase to Chiquinho, clearly thought enough time had passed for Oliver to let bygones be bygones.
Not so. Martinelli halted the Wolves’ forward’s progress and Oliver beckoned him over to issue yellow cards for both fouls, handing the Brazil forward his marching orders.This article originally appeared in The Athletic
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