Mikel Arteta thinks that Chelsea targeted Arsenal players, who had been given yellow cards during Sunday’s intense Premier League match at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues went down to 10 men in the 38th minute of an explosive London derby, with Moises Caicedo’s initial caution for a reckless challenge on Mikel Merino overturned as referee Anthony Taylor instead awarded a straight red after a VAR review.
After then, the game’s aggressive style continued and a total of seven yellow cards were issued, six of which went to Arsenal, who will now automatically be fined £25,000 by the Football Association (FA).
According to The Evening Standard, Arteta reckons that part of Chelsea’s strategy was to try to get the Gunners players who were already on yellow to pick up second bookings so that it would be 10 vs. 10.
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Martin Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera, Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori – three members of Arsenal’s starting defence – were all cautioned in the first half, as well as Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella, with Arteta revealing that he felt he had to substitute Calafiori as a result as he battled with the likes of Estevao and Pedro Neto.
“We had four players with yellow cards [at half-time] and you could see they were targeting those players to get the game even,” Arteta told Sky Sports.
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