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Chelsea were dealt a suspension blow after a Marc Cucurella straight red card with their Carabao Cup tie against Arsenal on the horizon
Marc Cucurella will not be suspended for the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg between Chelsea and Arsenal. The Blues left-back was sent off 22 minutes into their Premier League clash against Fulham for denying Harry Wilson a goal-scoring opportunity.
The Premier League match centre, via X, wrote: "The referee’s call of free-kick to Fulham and a red card to Cucurella for denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO) was checked and confirmed by VAR - with it deemed that Cucurella committed a holding offence that did not continue into the penalty area."
Though he will serve a one-match suspension, it will not be in the league nor the Carabao Cup. That is because red cards also carry over to the FA Cup and a third round tie with Charlton Athletic is their next fixture.
He will however, be back available for selection to face the Gunners at Stamford Bridge next Wednesday with the return leg at Emirates Stadium early into the following month.
New head coach Liam Rosenior will be without Moises Caicedo though, as he hit the limit of yellow cards after getting booked in their quarter-final triumph over Cardiff City.
The midfielder has already missed four games through suspension with three of those as a result of a straight red card against Arsenal in the league. Caicedo has also been banned for getting five yellow cards in the league before game week 19 which meant a one-match ban that was served this past weekend against Manchester City.
Despite his absence and the brutal dismissal of Enzo Maresca, interim head coach Stuart MacFarlane led Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at Etihad Stadium with Enzo Fernandez scoring a last-gasp equaliser.
Cucurella becomes the eighth Chelsea player to be shown a red card with Robert Sanchez, Joao Pedro, Trevoh Chalobah, Malo Gusto, Liam Delap and Caicedo also dismissed.
Over in north London, Arsenal's concerning disciplinary record is firmly in the rear-view mirror with injury problems also lessening.
Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber, Leandro Trossard and Ben White have all overcome minor problems in recent weeks while the likes of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Jesus have returned from bigger injuries.
The former has not played since August but has been back in a matchday squad and will be hoping for some minutes against his former club over the coming weeks. Arteta has since hinted at exactly that and potential returns for Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera
On Havertz, he said: "We are monitoring, obviously his load he has been out for a long time for two different reasons and he's very close, he trained this morning again and hopefully we're going to have him available and the best version of Kai Havertz."
Speaking on the two defenders, the Gunners boss revealed: "I think pretty soon they have to go to the last stage of the rehab, I think everything goes well, hopefully very soon they will be available for selection."
Arsenal face Liverpool on Thursday evening before taking on Portsmouth and Chelsea in the FA and Carabao Cup, respectively.
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