The Dirtiest Teams in the Premier League 2025/26 Season

26th May 2026

Wolves top the foul count, Spurs lead everything else – the full discipline breakdown

The 2025/26 Premier League season is done and dusted, and while we’re all busy arguing about title races and relegation drama, there’s a quieter story buried in the numbers. Who were the dirtiest teams in the league this season? Who couldn’t stop hacking people down? And which players spent more time in the referee’s notebook than on the ball?

We dug into the discipline stats on Statz to find out.

The foul merchants: Wolves ran away with it

Wolves committed a staggering 493 fouls across their 38 league games this season – that’s nearly 13.0 per match. For a team that finished rock bottom with just 20 points, 27 goals scored and 68 conceded, the cynical stuff was about all they had left by the end. When you’re getting outplayed every week, fouling becomes a survival tactic. It didn’t save them from relegation, but it certainly made life miserable for everyone who played them.

Spurs weren’t far behind with 462 fouls, averaging 12.2 per game, while Bournemouth racked up 457 at 12.0 per game. Brighton sat fourth with 453 and West Ham rounded out the top five on 421.

At the other end, Man City were the cleanest team in the league with just 368 fouls – 9.7 per game. Aston Villa were second-cleanest on 379. Draw your own conclusions about what possession does for your foul count.

Yellow card kings: Spurs broke the century

This is where Spurs really distinguished themselves. 101 yellow cards in a single season – that’s 2.7 per match. Ange Postecoglou’s side weren’t just fouling, they were fouling badly enough to get booked for it constantly. Finishing 17th on 41 points with the league’s worst discipline record is quite the combination.

Chelsea were close behind on 98 yellows, with Bournemouth on 88, Brighton on 86 and Sunderland on 82. At the bottom of the card table, Arsenal picked up just 51 yellows all season and Liverpool only 57. Disciplined defending or just better at getting away with it? Your call.

Seeing red: Spurs again

Spurs also led the red card charts with 9 dismissals across the season – roughly one every four games. Chelsea had 8 and Newcastle 7. Everton picked up 4 while most clubs kept theirs to 2 or 3.

Three teams went the entire season without a red card: Man City, Arsenal and Brighton. Whatever you think of those sides, they kept their heads when it mattered.

The individual offenders

At player level, the numbers are just as revealing. Igor Thiago topped the foul charts with 74 in 38 appearances – that’s 1.9 fouls per game, virtually guaranteed to give away a free kick every time he stepped on the pitch. Joao Gomes was right behind on 69 fouls in 35 apps, averaging 2.0 per game – the highest rate among the top foulers. Two Wolves players topping the charts tells you everything about how that team played this season.

Elliot Anderson committed 57 fouls across all 38 games, Moises Caicedo had 54 in 33, and Sasa Lukic racked up 53 in just 26 appearances – over 2.0 per game when he was on the pitch.

In the yellow card rankings, James Garner, Yerson Mosquera and Andre all finished level on 12 each. Caicedo picked up 11, while Lewis Dunk, Dan Burn, Ethan Ampadu, Joelinton, Casemiro and Cristian Romero all collected 10 apiece. That’s a defenders-and-destroyers list if ever there was one.

What does it all mean?

The correlation between poor results and poor discipline isn’t exactly surprising, but this season spelled it out in neon. Wolves fouled more than anyone and went down. Spurs collected more yellows and reds than anyone and nearly went with them. Meanwhile the title contenders barely troubled the officials.

Bournemouth are the interesting outlier – third in the foul charts but sixth in the table on 57 points. Sometimes aggression works when you’ve got the quality to back it up. But broadly? The dirtiest teams in the Premier League this season were the worst teams. And the data on Statz backs that up across the board.

Check the full discipline breakdowns for every team on Statz Leaders.