The Premier League’s Dirtiest Teams in 2025/26 – Season Review
3rd June 2026
The 2025/26 Premier League season is done and dusted, and while the title race and relegation battle grabbed the headlines, there was plenty going on in the disciplinary department. Some teams spent the entire campaign making life miserable for opponents – and referees.
Here’s how the full season played out when it comes to fouls, yellow cards, and general chaos.
Wolves: The Premier League’s Foul Kings
Wolves topped the Premier League foul count with 493 fouls across their 38 games – that’s just under 13 fouls per game. For a side that finished bottom of the table with just 20 points, there’s a clear pattern: when you can’t keep the ball, you stop the other team from playing with it.
Their midfield enforcer Joao Gomes was right at the heart of it. He racked up 69 fouls in 35 appearances, putting him second in the individual foul rankings across the entire division. That’s nearly two fouls per game from one player. He also collected 10 yellow cards for good measure.
Wolves teammate Yerson Mosquera was even more card-happy, picking up 12 yellows in just 27 appearances – one yellow card every 178 minutes. Both Mosquera and midfielder Andre (also 12 yellows from 35 appearances) were joint-top of the individual yellow card charts alongside Everton’s James Garner.
Spurs: The Most Carded Team in England
Tottenham committed 462 fouls across the season (second-highest in the league), but where they really stood out was in the yellow card column. Spurs picked up a league-high 101 yellow cards – that’s an average of 2.7 bookings per game. No other team came close to hitting three figures.
Chelsea were next with 98, but there was clear daylight between Spurs and the rest. When you factor in that Spurs finished 17th with just 41 points, the picture is of a team that spent most of the season in reactive mode – fouling, disrupting, and collecting cards.
Cristian Romero picked up 10 yellows in just 23 appearances, while Pedro Porro added another 10 from 34 games. Joao Palhinha was busy too – 109 tackles (second-most in the league) and inevitable card accumulation.
The Full Foul Table
Here’s how the top 10 looked for total fouls committed in 2025/26:
- Wolves – 493 fouls (13.0 per game)
- Spurs – 462 fouls (12.2 per game)
- Bournemouth – 457 fouls (12.0 per game)
- Brighton – 453 fouls (11.9 per game)
- West Ham – 421 fouls (11.1 per game)
- Chelsea – 420 fouls (11.1 per game)
- Fulham – 414 fouls (10.9 per game)
- Everton – 411 fouls (10.8 per game)
- Sunderland – 407 fouls (10.7 per game)
- Forest – 385 fouls (10.1 per game)
The Cleanest Side? Arsenal
Arsenal were the cleanest team in the league by a distance. They committed the fewest fouls and picked up just 51 yellow cards across the entire 38-game season – that’s 1.3 per game. For a title-winning side, discipline clearly mattered.
It’s a massive contrast to the bottom of the table. Wolves (493 fouls, 79 yellows) and Burnley (75 goals conceded, 66 yellows, last-but-one on 22 points) show how fouling correlates with poor results. When you can’t control games with the ball, you try to control them with your body.
The Individual Foul Merchants
At the player level, the foul leader was Igor Thiago of Brentford, who committed 74 fouls in 38 appearances. That’s nearly two fouls per game from a striker – an unusual profile for a centre-forward, but Thiago’s physical style made him a handful for defenders and referees alike. He also banged in 22 goals, so Brentford won’t have minded.
Behind him, Joao Gomes (69 fouls), Elliot Anderson (57), Moises Caicedo (54), and Sasa Lukic (53 in just 26 games) rounded out the top five.
The takeaway? In the 2025/26 Premier League, the dirtiest teams were overwhelmingly the ones that struggled. Discipline and quality went hand in hand at the top, while the bottom of the table was a yellow-card factory.