Arsenal set for massive punishment after Chelsea draw as Mikel Arteta handed blow

View 2 Images

Arsenal are bracing themselves for a £25,000 fine from the Football Association (FA) after six of their players were shown yellow cards during Sunday's heated 1-1 draw against Chelsea .

Martin Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera, Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Viktor Gyokeres all found themselves in the referee's book at Stamford Bridge.

The FA imposes a financial penalty when a team accumulates six bookings in a single match, leading to the hefty £25,000 fine. The Gunners are no strangers to this rule, having previously been fined for reaching the six-card threshold during a 3-1 victory over Liverpool in February 2024.

Despite their lack of discipline against Chelsea, Mikel Arteta's squad have only received the third-lowest number of yellow cards in the Premier League this season (18). Only Newcastle United (13) and Manchester United (16) have fewer bookings than Arsenal in the 2025/26 campaign.

Bournemouth (35), Tottenham (32), Brighton (32), Sunderland (27) and Fulham (26) top the list for the most yellow cards accumulated in the Premier League this season.

If Arsenal hit the six-card mark again this season, the fine would double to a whopping £50,000. There is an additional £25,000 increase for three or more instances of six-plus yellow card offences.

Despite the flurry of yellow cards, Arsenal managed to avoid a red card - something Chelsea couldn't do. With the scoreline still at 0-0, Moises Caicedo was sent off in the 38th minute for a late tackle on Mikel Merino.

Referee Anthony Taylor originally showed Caicedo a yellow card, but changed it to a straight red after VAR recommended he review the incident on the pitchside monitor.

View 2 Images

With Chelsea down to ten men, it appeared Arsenal would take control. Instead, the Blues found fresh energy and grabbed the lead shortly after the break when Trevoh Chalobah powered home Reece James ' corner, sending Stamford Bridge into delirium.

Arsenal drew level on 59 minutes through Mikel Merino, setting up an enthralling final half-hour. The Gunners pressed for a winner and created opportunities, but couldn't find a second goal and had to accept a draw.

Speaking about his team's display and the 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."

The Gunners currently lead the Premier League table by five points from second-placed Manchester City , with Chelsea sitting six points behind in third and Aston Villa a further point back in fourth place.

Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.