Chelsea’s midfield star Moises Caicedo has been accused of letting comparisons with Declan Rice get into his head before the Blues’ Premier League clash with Arsenal
Chelsea star Moises Caicedo allowed comparisons with Declan Rice to get in his head, according to Jamie Carragher. The £115million midfielder was sent off in the clash between the Blues and Arsenal as Enzo Maresca’s side earned a draw.
Both players made mega-money moves in the summer of 2023, after Arsenal saw a number of bids rejected by Brighton in the previous January. Since then, both have established themselves as top players in the Premier League.
Coming into the clash, part of the narrative included who was currently the division’s best midfielder. And Carragher reckons that played a part in Caicedo’s performance on Sunday.
The Ecuador international covered plenty of ground and looked to hassle the opposition in his 38 minutes. It was evident he was playing on the edge, however, even before his poor challenge on Mikel Merino.
Anthony Taylor only awarded a yellow card until VAR’s intervention. Despite Caicedo’s surprise, there could be few arguments over the resultant red.
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“He was really pumped up,” said Carragher. “I think we saw that right from the start of the game. I think the whole talk this week of Rice vs Caicedo maybe got to him, understandably so.
“It’s a huge game, and he ends up getting himself involved in a challenge. Yes, it’s a red card, but it’s just daft to get involved in a tackle like that. He doesn’t need to.
“He’s a brilliant player. He wins the ball back fantastically well, but I think he does have a tendency where he can look clumsy with some of the angles he can come in with, and I’m quite surprised that this is only his first red card.
“I remember a challenge in the Carabao Cup final against [Ryan] Gravenberch a couple of years ago as well. It’s not because he’s a nasty player but that was a case in point really, where he ends up facing his own goal to win a challenge, where basically he’s got someone else coming behind him, and he just doesn’t need to get involved.
“He’s just got to be careful with that. He’s a fantastic player, but he definitely needs to learn from that. I’m sure the manager will speak to him if he’s come out and said it was a definite red card, and that’s really good to hear.”
Chelsea boss Maresca had no complaints over Caicedo being shown red, but was perplexed why his side had not benefited in a similar moments. “It’s a red card,” he said.
“But why was Bentancur’s against Reece not a red card when we were at Spurs away? So us, as a manager, we struggle to understand why they judge in different way. Moises’ is red card, yes. Bentancur’s is a red card, yes. Why they don’t give him a red card? It’s just that, that we struggle to understand.
“The reality is that it’s red card. But why they judge in different way? And the Trevoh one, I asked the referee, he said to me that it was not an elbow. So, this is what they said. [He had a] black eye, with ice at half-time. But they judge in different way.”
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