{"id":253051,"date":"2025-10-31T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253051\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:04:10","slug":"chelsea-have-a-red-card-problem-can-they-set-record-as-bad-boys-of-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253051\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea have a red card problem — can they set record as bad boys of Europe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday night, when Liam Delap<\/a> was sent off in the chaotic 4-3 win<\/a> over Wolves<\/a> in the Carabao Cup<\/a> fourth round, Chelsea<\/a> fans would have been saying ‘not again.’<\/p>\n

Delap’s red card — who came off the bench on 79 minutes, only to get two bookings in the next seven minutes — was their fifth of the season in all competitions, all of which have come in a 39-day span.<\/p>\n

Those red cards include:<\/p>\n

How bad has Chelsea’s discipline been this season?Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca expressed his displeasure with Liam Delap over his red card against Wolves.\u00a0DARREN STAPLES\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

After watching Delap receive his marching orders, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca could not hide his feelings.<\/p>\n

“We had a very stupid red card that was completely unnecessary, and was absolutely deserved,’ a visibly angry Maresca said.<\/p>\n

“We can avoid red cards like these and we have to avoid them.”<\/p>\n

‘When it’s a red card like today, it’s embarrassing. There were two yellow cards in seven minutes, both avoidable. It’s no good.”<\/p>\n

In truth, the red card was no surprise, and has been a common theme of Chelsea’s season.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN Global Research, Chelsea’s five red cards in all competitions this season is the most in Europe’s top five major leagues, joint only with LaLiga side Girona (spread across three games.)<\/p>\n

However, Chelsea’s disciplinary issues are a more occuring theme, with all five coming in different games.<\/p>\n

Are Chelsea on track for a record?Chelsea have been shown the joint-most red cards in Europe’s top five leagues so far this season.\u00a0Robin Jones\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In short, not really.<\/p>\n

Even amidst a seemingly constant stream of red cards, Chelsea are still unlikely to be the bad boys of Europe.<\/p>\n

The record for the most dismissals in a Premier League season is nine, held by Sunderland (2009-10) and Queen’s Park Rangers (2011-12). So far, Chelsea have had just three in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

However, the record across all competitions in Europe’s top five major league is likely out of reach.<\/p>\n

ESPN Global Research data back to 2009 shows that Sevilla were shown a stunning 17 red cards in the 2012-13 season.<\/p>\n

Is Chelsea’s young squad to blame?Chelsea boast the youngest squad in the Premier League.\u00a0Bradley Collyer\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

There may be do definitive reason for Chelsea’s lack of discipline, although Maresca has already diagnosed the issue: Their lack of experience.<\/p>\n

“It’s part of the journey of this team, this squad, that needs to grow up, to make experience to get better,” he said after the win over Wolves.<\/p>\n

– Tottenham vs Chelsea: Kick-off time, how to watch, team news<\/a>
– Which club has the most PL Hall of Fame inductees?<\/a>
– Chelsea’s Maresca slams Delap for ’embarrassing’ red card<\/a><\/p>\n

Chelsea have the youngest squad in the Premier League, with an average age of 24 years and 112 days. And another thing: Maresca has never selected a player aged over 30 in the league during his tenure at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

However, if you look at the ages of the players to have been sent off, it maybe tells a different story: Gusto (22), Delap (22), Pedro (24), Chalobah (26) and S\u00e1nchez (27).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday night, when Liam Delap was sent off in the chaotic 4-3 win over Wolves in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-253051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}