Chelsea Grab Draw Against Arsenal After Playing 57 Minutes With Ten Players

Chelsea showed remarkable grit to take a point off Arsenal in a fiercely contested 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in which they played for 57 minutes with a man down.

Moises Caicedo’s sending off in the 38th minute threw the match into chaos and left Enzo Maresca’s team staring at a long and difficult evening. Anthony Taylor’s decision was upheld after a VAR check, and Chelsea suddenly found themselves trying to contain a league-leading Arsenal side with more than half the match still to play.

What followed surprised everyone inside the ground. Instead of folding, Chelsea came out for the second half with purpose. Within three minutes they were in front through Trevoh Chalobah, who met Reece James’ corner with a perfectly judged header that skimmed past the goalkeeper and ignited the home crowd.

Arsenal, who had been noticeably flat before the break, finally found its rhythm. Mikel Arteta sent on Martin Odegaard and Noni Madueke to inject some creativity, and the shift in intensity was almost immediate.

Their breakthrough came in the 59th minute when Mikel Merino climbed above his marker to steer Bukayo Saka’s cross into the net, levelling the score and reasserting Arsenal’s grip on possession.

Chelsea, already stretched, lost Joao Pedro to injury shortly before the hour and were forced to send on Liam Delap. Arsenal kept coming, pushing Chelsea deep into their own half, but the home side dug in and defended with real character.

Myles Lewis-Skelly, introduced at the restart, was booked as the match grew increasingly heavy with tackles, and Viktor Gyokeres also found his way into the book after coming on for Eberechi Eze.

Despite Arsenal’s dominance of the ball, Chelsea carved out several chances of their own and finished with more shots overall. Both sides had five efforts on target, a statistic that underlined Chelsea’s resolve while playing a man short.

By the final whistle, Arsenal looked frustrated as they failed to stretch their lead at the top of the table. On the other hand, Chelsea ended the weekend sitting third on the table, 6 points below Arsenal, and a point behind second-placed Manchester City.