TEN red cards in one season! Chelsea's most stupid dismissals in 2025-26 - ranked

Of all the players to see red for Chelsea over the course of the campaign, Trevoh Chalobah's dismissal against Brighton in September was, by a distance, the one where a large amount of the blame could be apportioned elsewhere.

The England defender was penalised for denying Diego Gomez a goal-scoring opportunity after bringing him down on the edge of the area, but was forced into desperate action after Andrey Santos' misplaced pass put Brighton's Paraguayan playmaker in on goal. Chelsea were 1-0 up at the time early in the second half, but their 10 men eventually succumbed to a 3-1 loss with Chalobah back in the dressing room.

If this list were ranking the most 'needless' red cards then Enzo Maresca would be much higher, but in terms of 'stupidity', it's difficult to blame a manager for celebrating a stoppage-time winner scored by teenage wonderkid to take down the defending champions on home soil.

Estevao's strike to put Chelsea 2-1 up against Liverpool led to Maresca haring off down the touchline and jumping on his players by the corner flag. However, the Premier League Fun Police, AKA the PGMOL, do not allow for coaches to leave their technical areas in such a flagrant manner, and thus Maresca watched the final seconds from inside the Stamford Bridge tunnel.

Wesley Fofana really should have known better than to jump into a challenge with James Ward-Prowse when he was already on a booking against Burnley in February. However, dive in the French defender did, but his timing was out and thus he received a second booking to leave Chelsea to play out the final 18 minutes a man down.

The Blues couldn't hang onto their 1-0 lead as Zian Flemming equalised in stoppage time, and though the racist abuse Fofana received in the aftermath of the incident was abhorrent and absolutely out of order, there's no doubting that his decision-making on the day should come into question.

Marc Cucurella has got himself to a fair amount of scraps during his Chelsea career thus far, though he has largely managed to avoid punishment this term while instead provoking opponents into lapses of judgement. The one black mark against the Spain defender came, however, in January's derby clash with Fulham, when his mistake condemned the Blues to defeat at Craven Cottage.

Midway through the first half, Bernd Leno played a long ball over the top for Harry Wilson to run onto. Cucurella found himself as Chelsea's last man, but failed to deal with the bouncing ball before pulling Wilson down as he was about to bear down on goal. Cucurella was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity after making what is becoming an increasingly rare error.

Jose Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge during the early days of his Benfica tenure, but the game failed to live up to the hype as Chelsea ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a first-half own goal from Richard Rios. Despite the narrow scoreline, the Blues were comfortable for much of the evening, which made substitute Joao Pedro's dismissal in the final moments even more frustrating.

With just 30 seconds of stoppage time left, the Brazil striker carelessly raised his foot towards an opponents head when challenging for a bouncing ball. Pedro was subsequently shown a second yellow card for a high boot when, if he had just thought about what he was attempting for a microsecond, he should have realised that the risk wasn't worth the reward so late in the game.

As Chelsea prepared to welcome Arsenal to Stamford Bridge in November, they did so as the Gunners' nearest challengers at the top of the table, with much of the build-up focused on the likely duel between the two best midfielders in the Premier League, Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo. However, the hype seemed to get to the latter, who received his marching orders before the clash had even reached half-time.

Caicedo threw himself into a challenge with Mikel Merino, but only succeeded in crunching into the Arsenal man's ankle while also causing himself a minor injury. A red card followed, and though the Blues battled to a deserved 1-1 draw, they took just four points from the three matches Caicedo was suspended for to all-but end their title bid following his needless indiscretion.

Pedro Neto had struggled to make much of an impact on Chelsea's clash with Arsenal when the London rivals met at the Emirates in March, but that still didn't excuse him taking out his frustrations during five mad second-half minutes. He first received a booking for protesting against Jurrien Timber's header that gave the Gunners a 2-1 lead in north London before diving in to bring down Gabriel Martinelli as he led a counter-attack for the hosts moments later.

Neto couldn't believe he had been dismissed, but he could have no complaints, and ex-Chelsea forward Chris Sutton labelled the Portugal international as being an "idiot" for "letting Chelsea down" as they failed to launch a comeback with 10 men.

Robert Sanchez has been prone to rushes of blood to the head over the course of his Chelsea career, and one of his most costly came at Old Trafford in September when he was sent off after just five minutes. Sanchez could have stayed at home and tried to save whatever shot Bryan Mbeumo would have attempted after he got in behind the Blues' defence, but the Spanish goalkeeper instead rushed out and clattered into the United forward some 20 yards from goal.

As the last man he was rightly dismissed, leaving the visitors to play almost the whole match with 10 men. They were helped out by Casemiro getting himself sent off to even things out before half-time, but United had taken a two-goal lead by then, and Chelsea couldn't haul themselves level despite Trevoh Chalobah pulling one back late on.

After suffering a hamstring injury in August, Liam Delap would have hoped to kickstart his Chelsea career when he made his return to action off the bench in the second half of the Blues' fourth-round Carabao Cup tie at Wolves two months later. Rather, he ended the night at Molineux being labelled as "stupid" by his boss Enzo Maresca after getting himself sent off for two ridiculous challenges.

Delap first got himself booked for shoving Yerson Mosquera in an off-the-ball incident before, just seven minutes later, he jumped into Emmanuel Agbadou while leading with his elbow to receive a second yellow card and thus a red. Chelsea were leading 3-2 at the time, and though Wolves did equalise, a last-minute strike from Jamie Gittens meant that at least Delap's indiscretion didn't lead to a defeat.

It's one thing to get sent off when a game is still in the balance or even when the frustrations of a certain defeat boil over; it's another entirely to receive a red card when you already have the result wrapped up. But that's exactly what Malo Gusto did with Chelsea already 3-0 up at Nottingham Forest with 87 minutes on the clock at the City Ground in October.

While the finishing touches were being put to Forest's statement confirming the sacking of Ange Postecoglou, Gusto dived in on Neco Williams to earn himself a second booking of the game and thus an early bath. Enzo Maresca labelled the challenge as being "useless" in his post-match press conference, and that was perhaps kind on the French defender given the state of the game.