Chelsea are suffering because of their lack of discipline

By the time the final whistle sounds on this Premier League campaign, Chelsea may remember 2023-24 as the year they matched a unwanted record long before the calendar reached May. With 11 fixtures still to play, the club have already equalled their single-season high for red cards, a benchmark set during the 2007-08 term, raising urgent questions about composure, game management and accountability.

The numbers are stark. Only once have the Blues managed to secure victory after going a man down, surviving an 87th-minute dismissal to claim all three points away at Nottingham Forest. In every other reduced-squad scenario the cost has been heavy: defeats to Manchester United, Brighton and Fulham followed early red cards, while a spirited home draw with Arsenal came only after Moises Caicedo received his marching orders in November.

Discipline issues extend beyond dismissals. Chelsea sit rock-bottom of the Premier League Fair Play table on 86 points, accumulated through 60 yellow cards. It is the third consecutive campaign the club have finished or currently reside in the bottom two, a trend that coincides with a deliberate shift toward youth. Not a single player over the age of 28 has featured this season, making the squad the youngest in the division.

Head coach Liam Rosenior, however, rejects the notion that inexperience alone is to blame. “I think youth is one thing, accountability is another,” he said. “I’m accountable. I’m the head coach, I’m the manager of the team. I’m responsible for every result and every performance we have. We need players you can rely on in the moment to do their job.”

Rosenior, appointed after the majority of the season’s red cards had already been issued, declined to criticise individuals such as Wesley Fofana, instead highlighting the club’s improved behaviour under his watch. “Our discipline since I’ve come in—which is what I can speak about—has been very good,” he insisted, pointing to the sole blemish of Enzo Maresca’s touchline sending-off for exuberant celebration against Liverpool.

With more than a quarter of the season remaining, the onus is on Rosenior and his youthful squad to arrest a pattern that threatens to undermine their climb up the table. The correlation between red cards and dropped points is impossible to ignore; reversing it may determine whether Chelsea’s rebuild yields tangible progress or another year of what-if reflections.