Former Super Eagles captain John Mikel Obi has attributed Chelsea’s failure to defeat Arsenal in Sunday’s Premier League clash to the first-half red card issued to Moises Caicedo.
The London derby ended 1-1 at Stamford Bridge, with Caicedo receiving his marching orders in the 38th minute after a VAR review. Despite being reduced to 10 men, Chelsea went ahead shortly after the interval through a Trevor Chalobah header, before Mikel Merino drew Arsenal level.
The Blues have now accumulated seven red cards in 20 matches across all competitions this season — a disciplinary trend Mikel Obi described as unacceptable.
“That’s four red cards this season; it’s not good enough. I’ve spoken about it, and the manager needs to address it with the players because it’s costing us games,” he said on his podcast.
Reflecting on the match, Mikel insisted Chelsea would likely have taken all three points under normal circumstances.
“If you look at that game, if we finished with eleven men, I think we could’ve won. Maybe not easily, but comfortably, we could’ve secured a win.”
