Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal (Caicedo sent off 38’, Chalobah 48’ | Merino 59’)
STAMFORD BRIDGE — The kind of moment of madness on which titles are decided, Moises Caicedo’s red card was the ultimate get-out-of-jail card. Arsenal did not take it.
Despite Chelsea battling for an hour with 10 men, Mikel Arteta’s side were restricted to eight attempts and, though they came from behind to secure a point, have to look back on this as a missed opportunity to go nine points clear.
Referee Anthony Taylor, for his part, will be relieved that what began as a wonderful battle of tactical attrition did not merely descend into a mass brawl. With a spate of needless yellow cards – seven in all, three in 13 minutes, Taylor lost control of what was always going to be a heated derby. Captains Reece James and Bukayo Saka must have been more than a little bemused when he gathered them in the middle to try and defuse an atmosphere he had largely created.
Yet however much Taylor is always berated at Stamford Bridge, there is no getting away from Chelsea’s fundamental problem. This was their seventh red card of the season – including one for Enzo Maresca – and it is precisely that ill-discipline which betrays the naivety that is likely to prevent them from challenging too closely for the title.
Caicedo’s red card
Moisés Caicedo has been SENT OFF for this challenge on Mikel Merino
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025pic.twitter.com/02bxHYVYth
Taylor’s pockets were probably tired by the time Caicedo grazed his studs over the top of Mikel Merino’s ankle. Gabriel Heinze led the remonstrations from the Arsenal bench, who to a man were on their feet protesting. With Taylor’s gaze occupied elsewhere, it required the VAR to intervene. Caicedo can have few serious complaints.
Verdict: Red. Right on Merino’s ankle and Caicedo can have no serious complaints.
Hincapie’s elbow
Chelsea did not see it that way, scolding Taylor and his fellow officials as they left the field at half-time. There was a certain poetry at least in their opener. Trevoh Chalobah had been on the receiving end of Piero Hincapie’s elbow as they both went up for a challenge; Hincapie, one of Arsenal’s two deputy centre-backs in place of the injured William Saliba and Gabriel, was only shown a yellow.
Verdict: It was reckless even if he didn’t mean to lead with the elbow but *just about* a yellow because of lack of intent.
Gyokeres vs Sanchez
It took Saka’s first assist in exactly a year to set up Merino’s header for the equaliser. Arsenal’s false nine continues to prove the ultimate clutch player and a surprise source of unlikely goals. Viktor Gyokeres scented the opportunity to win it at the death, diving in late on Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, earning a yellow.
Verdict: Gyokeres had the right to go for the ball but looked like he knew he was going in late. Probably only a yellow on balance but on another day he might not be so lucky.
In isolation, Arsenal’s failure to capitalise is not going to cost them the title. If anything, it was another impressive showing of their depth given Saliba and Gabriel’s absences, though they looked notably more fragile without them defensively.
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This is also still a makeshift attack, with Gyokeres and Martin Odegaard only fit enough to make their appearances in the second half and Gabriel Jesus remaining on the bench on his first return to the squad since January. In that light, perhaps they would have taken a point before kick-off. For all the depth they added in the summer they are still battling an injury crisis that in previous years would have seen them crumble.
The real question for Arteta is why his team did not go in for the kill in the manner that Chelsea did. That Riccardo Calafiori, Mosquera and Hincapie – and later Myles Lewis-Skelly – were all riding yellow cards for most of the game shifted the mindset right back to where it was against Manchester United on the opening weekend.
Arteta loves to win and loves even more not to lose. In that, he got his wish, but this was not a performance of champions – and however much Maresca likes to play down the prospects of his own young pretenders, they have at the very least kept the title race alive.
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