Former Scotland international James McArthur has hacked his way to the top of a Premier League naughty list … by being named the English top flight’s biggest fouler of the last five years.
The Crystal Palace midfielder committed an astonishing 259 fouls in the last five seasons - 12 more than Southampton enforcer Oriol Romeu who is the second worst offender.
Despite being on the wrong end of the referee's whistle so often, former Hamilton Academical man McArthur only picked up 29 bookings in that time for his club.
And incredibly he has never been sent off in a decade playing south of the border. His last red card came for Hamilton in May 2009.
The figures come as part of the BetVictory study ‘In The Book’ which crunched the numbers to find the EPL’s dirtiest players.
Palace players feature prominently in the top 20, with Wilfried Zaha the player to commit the third most fouls over the period at 242, while Jordan Ayew, Luka Milivojevic, Christian Benteke and Cheikhou Kouyate also making the top 20.
Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, known for his ability to break up play, has committed 233 fouls.
This season alone, Mateusz Klich of Leeds is leading the fouls charts with 23, with the likes of Paul Pogba, Kante and Romeu picking up from where they had left off over previous years.
Manchester United have wracked up the second highest number of cards over the five years - an average of 71.8 a season with only West Brom’s average of 74 higher.
You can view the full study here.
