As anticipation built over whether Anthony Taylor would be called to review Moises Caicedo’s tackle on Mikel Merino, an uproar erupted from the Arsenal bench. The coaches had already replayed the incident on their iPads and were clearly displeased with what they saw.

Mikel Arteta’s aides, Albert Stuivenberg and Gabriel Heinze, spearheaded the objections to fourth official Sam Barrott. Set-piece guru Nicolas Jover gestured VAR signals at Taylor, while Kepa Arrizabalaga, Arsenal’s substitute keeper and former Chelsea player, joined in the protest alongside other analysts expressing their discontent.

While Arsenal was visibly agitated, Chelsea maintained their composure. Enzo Maresca glanced at Bernardo Cueva, Chelsea’s set-piece coach stationed at the back with his own iPad. Cueva’s expression indicated that a red card seemed inevitable.

This dismissal marked Chelsea’s sixth of the season across all contests—or seventh if you count Maresca’s own ejection after celebrating a late victory over Liverpool in October. Yet, Maresca’s reaction to Caicedo’s sending-off was unexpectedly bold and proactive, contrasting sharply with previous responses.

In their away game against Manchester United, Robert Sanchez’s early red card forced Chelsea to substitute their wingers for reserve goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen and defender Tosin Adarabioyo. This defensive reshuffle stifled their offensive drive, resulting in a 2-1 loss for Chelsea.

Moises Caicedo plants his studs into Mikel Merino’s ankle at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 

The Chelsea midfielder is sent off – becoming the Blues’ sixth player to be dismissed in all competitions this season 

At half-time Enzo Maresca told Estevao Willian he was being replaced by Alejandro Garnacho (above) and then explained why to the entire group 

During a home match against Brighton, Trevoh Chalobah’s dismissal at the 53-minute mark saw Maresca bring on Josh Acheampong for midfielder Andrey Santos, soon followed by defender Malo Gusto replacing winger Estevao Willian. Despite leading 1-0, this cautious strategy backfired as Brighton clinched a 3-1 victory.

The reds they received in fixtures thereafter came too late to make substantial changes. Joao Pedro against Benfica – 90th minute. Gusto at Nottingham Forest – 87th minute. Liam Delap at Wolves – 86th minute. They were already winning in those and held on.

But this time, Caicedo’s badly-timed challenge left Chelsea a man shy after 38 minutes. Truth be told, those of us in the press box expected the same old story might unfold – a knee-jerk substitution, a desire to go on the defensive and a defeat, this time to the league leaders. 

Instead, Chelsea stood still until the interval. When the half-time whistle was blown, Maresca bolted down the tunnel with his fellow coaches in tow. 

Like many managers, Maresca has a whiteboard with magnets in the changing room – 11 in red and 11 in blue. Well, 10 in blue this time. While waiting for the players led by Reece James to trickle in, Maresca was rearranging those figures in conversation with Caballero, Walker et al.

In the first half, Chelsea’s players push up the pitch to pin Arsenal back, including full back Malo Gusto (No27), Enzo Fernandez (No8) and Pedro Neto (No7)

In the second half, Gusto, Fernandez and Neto, who has swapped wings, all drop much deeper to compensate for having 10 men. But Alejandro Garnacho (No49) pushes high up the pitch to threaten the Gunners on the break

Maresca told Estevao he was being replaced by Alejandro Garnacho, and then explained why to the entire group. 

The easy move would have been to sacrifice an attacker for a midfielder to fill that Caicedo-shaped hole, but no, they had the initiative and wanted to hold on to it.

It was a like-for-like replacement – a winger for a winger – but it was needed for how they were going to approach the remainder of this game. 

It was not a slight on Estevao that he was the one hooked. Until Caicedo’s red, Gusto had been galloping down the right-hand side to overlap the 18-year-old Brazilian to allow him to move inside into central positions and closer to Joao Pedro.

Now, that would no longer be happening, certainly not as regularly as it was when it was 11 v 11.

Maresca wanted Gusto to lessen his flying forward because they could no longer afford to have their back four turning into a back three, and he swapped Pedro Neto from the left wing to the right because the 25-year-old Portuguese is his most relentless runner. 

A starter in every single Premier League game this season and their fastest player, he would be willing to fulfil his defensive duties while still offering a threat on the counter-attack.

Maresca did not go on the defensive when his team were down to 10 men, something he tried unsuccessfully against Manchester United

Malo Gusto (left) keeps an eye on Eberechi Eze. The full back was given strict instructions not to push on as much when Chelsea were down to 10 men

Garnacho was brought on to give them that width over on the left instead as he tried to stay high and wide when not needed to help Marc Cucurella. Garnacho was also told to stay high and wait for those beautifully pinged diagonal balls from James to come his way. 

Maresca told Enzo Fernandez to drop deeper into the midfield rather than acting as their No 10. He told Joao Pedro, later replaced by Delap, to try to remain towards the top of the pitch to avoid this game turning into attack versus defence. 

He told the team to push up when they could – indeed, Chelsea’s average positions show their backline played deeper in the first half than the second – and in a final few words of encouragement, he asked them to ‘double the effort’.

Chelsea were meaner than Arsenal, more composed, and, in terms of Maresca’s tactics, braver. They took the lead through Chalobah and only conceded the equaliser once Bukayo Saka finally escaped the clutches of Cucurella to cross for Merino to head home.

Maresca will hope his side are not forced to compete with 10 men again any time soon, but if nothing else, Chelsea have at least shown they now know how to handle it.