Mois\u00e9s Caicedo will be suspended for Chelsea\u2019s Premier League trip to Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday after accumulating yellow cards. The ban arrives as the Blues begin their first match of 2026 and removes a midfield presence Enzo Maresca had relied upon.<\/p>\n
At the start of the month the 25-year-old had only two yellow cards in the 2025\u201326 Premier League campaign. Caicedo then picked up three in the last three matches to close out 2025, entering the referee\u2019s book against Newcastle United, Aston Villa and now, Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Manchester City arrive on the back of an eight-game winning streak. Pep Guardiola\u2019s side have looked virtually unstoppable over the last six weeks and play with a swagger befitting eight-time Premier League champions.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s recent form offers little comfort. Prior to facing Bournemouth the Blues had managed just two wins in their last eight matches across all competitions. Maresca\u2019s team dropped points against Arsenal, Leeds United, Bournemouth, Atalanta, Newcastle and Aston Villa during that run.<\/p>\n
A strong showing at the Etihad could have represented a timely statement, but the absence of Caicedo will force selection adjustments. Reece James will likely have to start alongside Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez on Sunday. Andrey Santos, who replaced Caicedo during the midfielder\u2019s previous suspension, remains an option, but the Brazilian\u2019s last Premier League start was nothing short of a disaster in Chelsea\u2019s 3\u20131 defeat to Leeds.<\/p>\n
Without Caicedo\u2019s midfield control Chelsea face a stern test against City\u2019s ferocious attack and quick passing through the middle. The suspension alters Maresca\u2019s plans for what is expected to be a demanding away fixture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caicedo will miss Chelsea’s trip to the Etihad after accumulating yellow cards late in 2025. on Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1056,172],"tags":[944,1140,1361],"class_list":["post-5536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-andrey-santos","tag-caicedo","tag-suspension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}