Arsenal moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a 1-1 draw at ten-man Chelsea on Sunday, with Mikel Merino cancelling out Trevoh Chalobah’s opener
Arsenal are set to receive a £25,000 fine from the Football Association (FA) after receiving six yellow cards during Sunday’s fiery 1-1 draw against Chelsea. Martin Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera, Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Viktor Gyokeres were all booked at Stamford Bridge.
That has led to a fine of £25,000 as the FA dish out a financial punishment when a team hits six cards in a match. The Gunners are well aware of these rules as they have been fined before for hitting the six-card mark, notably during a 3-1 win over Liverpool in February 2024.
Although Arsenal’s discipline was a little rash against Chelsea, Mikel Arteta’s side have still picked up the third-lowest amount of yellow cards in the Premier League this season (18). Only Newcastle United (13) and Manchester United (16) have collected fewer bookings than the Gunners in 2025/26.
Bournemouth (35), Tottenham (32), Brighton (32), Sunderland (27) and Fulham (26) have accumulated the most cautions in the Premier League this season.
Should Arsenal hit the six-card mark again this season, the fine would double, meaning a £50,000 punishment next time. There is a £25,000 increase for a three of more six-plus yellow card offences.
Despite collecting six yellow cards, Arsenal escaped without picking up a red card – something Chelsea failed to do. With the game locked in at 0-0, Moises Caicedo was given his marching orders in the 38th minute for a late challenge on Mikel Merino.
Referee Anthony Taylor initially gave Caicedo a booking, but upgraded it to a straight red card after VAR advised him to go and have a second look at the incident.
Once Chelsea were reduced to ten men, it felt as though Arsenal would dominate from there on. However, the Blues were rejuvenated and took the lead just after half-time. Trevoh Chalobah headed home Reece James’ corner to send the home faithful into raptures.
Arsenal levelled in the 59th minute through Mikel Merino to set up a fascinating final half-an-hour. The Gunners pushed to find an all-important winner and had chances, but were unable to score a second goal and had to settle for a point.
Reflecting on his side’s performance and result, Arteta said: “Yeah, well, first of all, I think it was a really proper London derby. Really intense, you could sense from the beginning that every duel, every action has something on it.
“Two teams very willing to win and not much football. It was a lot of restarts, a lot of free-kicks, stops, a lot of yellow cards, so not a lot of fluidity. But after the sending off of Caicedo, obviously we wanted to settle the game. We didn’t manage to do that. We had more yellow cards, we had four yellow cards.
“Obviously, those players were constantly targeted to try to even the game in terms of numbers. At half-time, we said, OK, let’s pause it now. Let’s now get what we have to do.
“Very clear what the intention and how we’re going to dominate the game. In the first action, long ball, gives a free-kick, wide free-kick, corner, concede a set-piece. So then the momentum shifted and emotionally the team had to react to that.
“We managed to get some good spells without having too much momentum, scored a great goal. And after that, yeah, we had two or three big chances, but we lacked certain details, especially in the manner that we attacked to generate more and especially to avoid certain transitions every time Robert had the ball in his hands.”
Arsenal are five points ahead of second-place Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. They sit six above Chelsea in third and Aston Villa down in fourth.
