This is how Chelsea can improve their discipline without losing on-field edge

Liam Rosenior is the third consecutive Chelsea head coach to have to field questions about his team’s on-pitch discipline.

“Our discipline since I’ve come in, which is what I only speak on, has been very good,” Rosenior insisted after Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday, in which Wesley Fofana received his second yellow card in the 72nd minute for a late tackle on James Ward-Prowse. “That was an unfortunate red card for Wes, he stepped in on a challenge.

“You’re going to get red cards. It’s too many, for sure. But in my time with the group, I think our discipline record has been very good up to now.”

Rosenior had a point; Fofana’s dismissal was Chelsea’s first red card since he replaced Enzo Maresca in the dugout last month, but it was their sixth in the Premier League this season — two more than any other team in the division — and their eighth across all competitions. Well, nine, if you include Maresca being sent off against Liverpool in October.

Chelsea are also on course to have the worst disciplinary record in the Premier League for the second time in three seasons (Ipswich Town’s was narrowly worse in 2024-25). Former head coach Mauricio Pochettino put the cascade of cards down to a lack of experience and the pressure of playing for a big club. Maresca insisted it was a case of his players needing to learn from their mistakes rather than being punished internally for them.

Rosenior also dismissed the notion of fining his players for indiscipline, but the reality is that Chelsea have already paid a significant price while on their learning curve: seven points dropped from winning or drawing positions in the Premier League this season while defending with 10 men. The final stretch carries no margin for such errors, so how can they fix it?

To gain an insight into how Chelsea might reckon with and reduce their critical mass of yellow and red cards, The Athletic looked to the two teams who jointly hold the Premier League record for most reds (nine) in a single season: Sunderland in 2009-10 and QPR in 2011-12.

Michael Turner was sent off twice for Sunderland that season, once for catching Gareth Barry with his arm while jumping for a high ball against Manchester City, the other after mistiming a challenge to earn a second booking against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The other players in Steve Bruce’s squad to see red in 2009-10 included Lee Cattermole, Lorik Cana, Alan Hutton and David Meyler.

“I wouldn’t say there was a feeling of ill-discipline among the team,” Turner tells The Athletic.

“We had a good team at the time and were really competitive, and we were in most games we played. Our game was very aggressive. Steve Bruce liked those kinds of players who would get around, hunt the ball down and be aggressive in tackles. Tactically, we felt like we always set up quite well. Our record obviously proves (there was indiscipline) but I wouldn’t say we ever felt within the team that we had to be careful going into games.”

Turner is adamant that Bruce never encouraged his players to go beyond the bounds of acceptable contact, but cannot recall indiscipline being a particular cause for concern internally at Sunderland that season. The fact that their nine red cards were spread throughout the squad (Turner was the only player to be sent off more than once) may have fed into that.

It also provides one potential reason why Chelsea players’ view of their own propensity to attract yellow and red cards might differ significantly from the perception of outside observers. All eight of their red cards across all competitions this season are attributable to different players, meaning there is no obvious Cristian Romero-like figure in Rosenior’s squad.

“If someone ends up being on a four-game ban for two red cards, that’s when you need to sit them down,” says Nedum Onuoha, who joined QPR from Manchester City in January of the 2011-12 season. “But if it’s multiple different players receiving red cards throughout a season, it feels like a lot, but it’s no worse in terms of availability than when a club goes through an injury crisis.”

Onuoha did not get sent off for QPR in 2011-12. That distinction belonged to a group of players that included Joey Barton and Djibril Cisse (two red cards apiece), Adel Taarabt and Clint Hill. “Nine times out of 10, the player who’d been sent off would be in the dressing room afterwards apologising, no matter what the red card was for,” he adds.

“If it was ridiculous, there were times when the player would apologise but the others would still remind them that what they’ve done isn’t acceptable. People can move on quickly, but if it’s a really stupid one, you don’t just accept the apology, and a manager will often lay into a player for a red card they didn’t need to get.”

The breakdown of Chelsea’s offences over the past three seasons is illuminating. Of the 283 cards they have been shown from the start of 2023-24 onwards, 77 (27 per cent) are for what Opta define as tactical fouls. Another 70 (just under 25 per cent) are for reckless fouls.

For the most part, these are realistically a feature, rather than a bug, of Chelsea’s style of play. “They’re not a team that likes to take a backward step,” Onuoha adds.

“If they can press you, they’ll press you, but even if you try to go in transition, their centre-backs will step into you on the front foot. They’re going to be competitive because the manager’s told them to take a step forward and never take a step back.

“The more a team wants to press, the higher the chance they might get beaten in that press, and then it leads to more cheap fouls.”

Moises Caicedo is emblematic of Chelsea’s approach out of possession. Shown a straight red card for a mis-timed tackle against Arsenal in November, he will incur a two-match suspension if he picks up two more yellow cards (he is currently on eight for the season) in the next five Premier League matches.

The equivalent player in that Sunderland team was Lee Cattermole, who similarly set the tone for those around him with his relentless aggression. “Catts wasn’t an angry player who went around trying to make fouls or anything,” Turner insists. “He was just aggressive in his press. He wanted to get tight to people, he loved a tackle, he liked to rattle a few players.

“That style of player helped me get up for games as well. When you’ve got players in front of you who are tearing around making tackles, it makes you want to get behind them, back them up and be aggressive also.”

More often than not, Caicedo’s tenacity is every bit as vital for Chelsea, and his coaches have been prepared to live with the risks in service of the team’s broader tactical aims.

Caicedo is booked earlier this season (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

“You need 11 players who essentially all understand what the plan is and continue to do it, regardless of whether they’re on a yellow card or not,” Onuoha says. “If Caicedo gets booked, that shouldn’t be the end of Chelsea’s game. They still have to play in a way that allows him to be on the front foot. The same with the centre-backs, because if they become passive, the whole thing collapses.”

Lower down the list of Chelsea’s card offences are infractions that should have been addressed, but are not trending downward: 47 yellow cards for dissent (17 per cent), another 24 for arguing (nine per cent) and 37 for time-wasting (13 per cent).

Onuoha says that QPR fined players for dissent yellows during his time at the club, and Turner believes in personal responsibility within dressing rooms. “Certainly there are situations where players don’t do themselves any favours,” he adds. “I think it’s stupidity more than anything, and individuals really have to look at themselves.”

But an easy solution to Chelsea’s disciplinary record does not exist, because a significant number of the cards they get are baked into their tactical approach. Even as he excoriated his team in blunt terms after the Burnley draw on Saturday, Rosenior pointedly declined to direct any blame at Fofana for his red card.

“Fofana was maybe a tenth of a second from being in a good position, and he did the right thing,” Onuoha says. “The manager’s not going to tell him to not try and win the ball there, but he’s just going to have to time it better.

“It’s the idea of intent versus execution. With the yellow and red cards they’re getting, some people feel a concern about the intent, saying it’s the wrong way to play. The manager will be more concerned about the execution, because he still wants to win the ball back as early as possible and start the attacks as quickly as possible.

“So he’s hoping the players improve their execution, as opposed to changing their intent about the amount of cards they receive.”