Chelsea and Arsenal will feel the repercussions of the mass melee in Sunday's League Cup final far into next month after Emmanuel Adebayor and Mikel John Obi had claims of wrongful dismissal rejected last night and Emmanuel Eboue was charged with violent conduct. The decisions came hours after the Football Association in England also charged both clubs with failing to control their players and officials.
The unruly-behaviour charges could lead to fines for both clubs, who have until March 14th to respond. Chelsea were twice fined £10,000 - and warned as to their future conduct - after being found guilty of two separate indictments last March, the first against West Bromwich Albion and the second in a 1-0 defeat to Fulham. History will be taken into consideration and could compound the size of Chelsea's fine, though nothing approaching the maximum £250,000 fine has ever been handed down and the FA are not minded to consider the incident especially serious. The Premiership champions are expected to defend themselves against the charge.
Though neither Mikel nor Adebayor's appeal was considered "frivolous", a verdict that would have led to extra matches being added to the punishment, both face stiff penalties. After picking up his second red card of the season in Cardiff, Chelsea's Mikel faces a four-match ban which will keep him out of domestic action until March 31st at the earliest.
Adebayor, who has been suspended for three matches for violent conduct, faces still greater censure. The Arsenal striker's claim that he had not deserved a red card was rejected, leading the FA now to turn their attentions to his failure to leave the field of play promptly and his "aggressive reaction" to referee Howard Webb.
That could lead to an additional one or two match suspension and a fine. Arsenal have until 6pm today to consider their response to the charge against Adebayor, but they are not likely to contest the three-match ban handed down to Eboue for striking Chelsea's Wayne Bridge.
Had Arsenal chosen to lodge a mistaken-identity claim against Adebayor's red card and submitted alongside it an admission of guilt from Eboue, the striker might have been spared his three-match ban for violent conduct. The additional charges would still have stood and Arsenal's failed attempt to argue wrongful dismissal means Adebayor will miss their domestic games at least until a possible FA Cup quarter-final, depending on the result against Blackburn tonight.
Arsenal will already be missing Kolo Toure, who was immediately handed a three-match ban for violent conduct for his fracas with Mikel which sparked the 14-man brawl. Arsenal chose not to appeal against the suspension.
Neither Jose Mourinho nor Arsene Wenger were charged for having encroached on the field of play. The FA considered their cases as having been dealt with in the general club charges.
