Quiz! Name the 40 players who've committed the most fouls in the Premier League this season

Premier League fouls

Foul counts are a frequently deceptive stat. Your mind might automatically go to a cynical centre-back or a midfield enforcer in the Roy Keane mould – but the truth is that forwards are as likely offenders as anyone.

Exhibit A is the below: the players with the most fouls in the Premier League this season, which contains just three defenders and yet 14 attacking players. They’re not all elbow-happy targetmen either; the current fashion for a striker who presses and harries opponents means they tend to give away more fouls. Plus, referees will blow up if you breathe near a goalkeeper in the box, which doesn’t help.

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Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a freelance journalist and the former digital features editor at FourFourTwo. He has also written for the Guardian, talkSPORT, Boxing News and Sport magazine. Like most Londoners, he is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen FC. He is deceptively bad in the air for a big man. He has never been a cage fighter.