- Sport
- Football
Moises Caicedo was sent off after 36 minutes for a terrible studs-up challenge on Mikel Merino, who went on to equalise for the Gunners.
Robert O'ConnorSunday 30 November 2025 18:40 GMT
Anthony Taylor signals for a VAR check for a challenge by Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo on Arsenal’s Mikel Merino (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)
Get the Adam Clery Football Column. A newsletter that unpacks the absurdities and oddities of the beautiful game
The ACFC newsletter: unpacking football’s absurdities
Unpack football’s oddities with the ACFC newsletter
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Chelsea earned a battling 1-1 draw with Premier League leaders Arsenal at Stamford Bridge despite playing for almost an hour with 10 men.
Moises Caicedo was sent off after 36 minutes for a terrible studs-up challenge on Mikel Merino, and at that point Chelsea might have folded, just as previously this season when going a player down before half-time.
This time they stood up manfully, bettering Arenal’s will to win with an unshakeable desire not to be beaten and all but ejected from the title race.
Trevoh Chalobah headed the 10 men into the lead shortly after half-time, and though Merino levelled for Arsenal before the hour, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca could take away plenty of encouragement from the way his team refused to lie down before the leaders.
The first half was a study in hard-tackling and nervous drama.
Marc Cucurella took out Bukayo Saka, Caicedo flattened then squared up to Merino – a prescient foreshadowing of the game’s decisive moment of redirection – then Martin Zubimendi was booked for a cynical foul in midfield, all before the fourth minute.
Cucurella, determined to make his presence known to Saka, was himself booked after 10 minutes for another foul on the England forward. Saka cannily evaded the full-back moments later to bring the first save of the match from Robert Sanchez, blocking well with his foot at the near post.
There was an outrageous miss by Estevao, who nearly put the ball over the roof of the Shed End from a free shot 10 yards out. Undeterred, he then went closer but still cleared the crossbar with a curling effort cutting in from the right.
Chelsea had been the better team before losing their most imposing midfielder.
Caicedo’s studs landing hard on the ankle of Merino looked bad in real time and worse on review, a view shared by referee Anthony Taylor after consulting the pitchside monitor, with his yellow card upgraded to a red.
Sanchez saved well from Gabriel Martinelli in stoppage time to cap a first 45 minutes light on chances but which had hummed with a bitter intensity.
Chalobah had ended the half bloody-faced and fulminating that Piero Hincapie’s stray elbow had not been deemed worthy of a red card. He began the second with his fists pumping in vindication.
Enzo Fernandez floated a corner to the near post and Chalobah rose to glance a clever header over the shoulder that dropped across goal and into the net.
The lead was short-lived. Just before the hour, Saka finally beat Cucurella – encumbered by his early yellow – and crossed from the right. Malo Gusto was left marking two players, one of whom was Merino, and he flicked his header past Sanchez.
Merino might have won it late with a low drive clawed away by Sanchez, who then took a knee to the face off substitute Viktor Gyokeres in scrambling to the rebound, as Chelsea lived to fight on in the title race.
