Chelsea caught out by surprising FA rule during Carabao Cup win as their bench turns chaotic
Chelsea ran into a new rule during their 2-0 win over Luton Town in the Carabao Cup second round.
On Thursday night, Chelsea secured their place in the Carabao Cup third round with a strong 2-0 victory against League One side Luton Town at Stamford Bridge. New signing Danny Welbeck scored on his Chelsea debut to give the hosts the lead, and an own goal from Luton’s defender Hakeem Odoffin helped seal the win.
The draw for the next round is on Wednesday, and Chelsea already know they will host Leeds United in a Premier League showdown, happening either the week of September 7 or September 14.
This win marked back-to-back victories for new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso, who started his time at the club with a 3-2 win over London rivals Fulham. However, there’s still some fine-tuning to do, as one of his players slipped up with a new FA rule introduced this season.
Starting this year, players have just 10 seconds to leave the field when substituted. If they take longer, the substitute has to wait at least one minute and the next stoppage before coming on. This rule aims to speed up the game and stop teams from wasting time when they’re winning.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, Welbeck and teammate Joao Pedro got caught out by this. Welbeck took too long to leave the pitch in the 75th minute, and when Pedro tried to come on, the official stopped him. A clip on social media showed Welbeck and Pedro hugging as Welbeck walked off, but then Pedro was held back by the official.
This caused immediate confusion, with Welbeck and Chelsea staff asking what was going on, while the fans started booing in frustration. Eventually, Pedro was allowed on, but the new rule didn’t sit well with Chelsea supporters, who responded with sarcastic cheers.
The FA’s new substitution rule is just one of several changes this season aimed at cutting down the time wasted during matches. For example, players treated for injuries on the field now have to leave for at least one minute (up from 30 seconds) to discourage players from faking injuries to waste time.
There’s also a five-second countdown for certain restarts like throw-ins and goal kicks, and if a team delays too much, they must give the ball to their opponents.
One popular tweak lets VAR review second yellow cards that lead to a red card to make sure the call was right. And a big new change involves trialing tactical timeouts for goalkeeper injuries. When play stops for a goalkeeper injury, the manager must send an outfield player off the pitch for at least one minute after the game restarts. This is designed to stop teams from using goalkeeper injuries to slow the game down or gain extra coaching time.
These changes show the FA’s effort to keep the game flowing and focus on the action on the pitch.