Chelsea fans were shocked when they found out how many games Reece James will miss after being sent off.
After a largely disappointing season, Chelsea are finishing on a high and are on the verge of sneaking into Europe next season.
A 2-1 win against Brighton on Wednesday night moved Mauricio Pochettino's side up to sixth in the Premier League table, which, as things stand, would secure them a place in the Europa Conference League.
However, club captain Reece James put a dampener on things when he was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Brighton attacker Joao Pedro in the final moments of the match.
James came off the bench in the 69th minute for only his second appearance since December following hamstring surgery.
He was soon given his marching orders, but he now faces a four-match ban that will stretch into next season.
The England international will serve the standard three-match suspension issued for violent conduct, plus an extra match as this is the second time he has been sent off this season.
James was shown two yellow cards in Chelsea's 4-1 defeat to Newcastle in November, the first for kicking the ball away and the second for hauling down Anthony Gordon.
James will therefore miss Chelsea's final game of the season against Bournemouth, plus the opening three matches of next season.
Reece James was shown a straight red card. (Getty)
Chelsea need to avoid defeat on Sunday to guarantee sixth place, but could move up to fifth and claim a place in the Europa League if they beat Bournemouth and Tottenham lose to Sheffield United.
James cannot play again before Gareth Southgate names his preliminary England squad ahead of Euro 2024.
On James' sending off, Chelsea boss Pochettino said: "Maybe it's the frustration of him.
"But, yes, painful. Painful because it was a fantastic night of football and he's our captain and a really important player. I'm disappointed because now he's going to miss the next game and maybe a few games in next season."
Chelsea fans were less than impressed by their captain's conduct.
"He has more red cards than important contribution to the team this season," complained one fan on X, while another lamented: "Is this man really a player? He plays more off the pitch than on."
A third disgruntled supporter wrote: "Reece is a good player but he's the worst captain ever ever had."
Topics: Reece James, Premier League, Football, Chelsea, Brighton And Hove Albion, Fan Reactions
S100K
544
His sister stepped on a Nigeria female player and recently was sent off for misconduct against a Man United female player in their FA semifinal game last month which United won this week.
Zayblnprs
502
The Truth be told....vawulence & retaliation in football is a bad thing to do and it should be discouraged. I am a Chelsea fan but I must say that such act shouldn't be coming from a Team's Captain (or any reasonable player) who should lead by example. That's the basis upon which I agreed with the Referee's decision. What REECE JAMES did was same thing the sister LAUREN JAMES did against Nigeria SUPER FALCONS player at the World Cup. They both will have family reflection on effects of Vawulence conduct to teach their children. WE NEED PEACEFUL & VIOLENCE FREE FOOTBALL MATCHES so players don'tget sent to injuries unnecessarily. God bless all football fans as we say no VIOLENCE conducts in football.
keciknpyz
262
guyz, even though it was not expected of James, de FA should understand de guy, players has injured him over nd over nd he finally returns nd a player wants to injure him again, think about it, if it were u, u would hv overreacted, it's like he felt like some players have deliberately plot to injure him to spoil his career. Again to me dis is a non sense verdict by de FA, why? 2023/2024 is a season on its own it has a start nd an end. nd 2024/2025 is another season on its own so why carry an incident in a particular entirely different season's issues into de other new one? den why don't dey allow de teams to carry dia points into dat of the new season?, for me it shd just end wit de season, bcuz it's 2 different seasons nd everything pertaining to de other shd not be sent to de other. why? de FA just don't like Chelsea, dats de conspiracy derr