· 13 May 2025, 19:30
**Chelsea had to play over an hour of football with 10 men on Sunday as they took on Newcastle United at St James' Park.**
Goals at either end of the match from Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes handed Newcastle the three points and the advantage in the race for Champions League football, but the big talking point from the match was Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson's sending off.
On 35 minutes, Jackson went into a challenge with Sven Botman, sending the Dutchman to the floor holding his face.
Referee John Brooks initially brandished a yellow card but was urged by VAR to take another look at it on the monitor, where he duly, and rightly, cancelled the yellow card and issued a straight red.
> [](https://twitter.com/iamrahmanosman/status/1922006577290068078)
Nicolas Jackson says his red card was 'regrettable'
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Replays showed that Jackson was fully focused on Botman and not the ball, and seemed to deliberately lead with his elbow. There could be no doubt it was a red card offence.
No doubt, that is, unless you're journalist Rahman Osman, who believed it was just a yellow before following up his baffling take with an update from Jackson himself.
> "Exclusive: Told Nicolas Jackson is very upset with himself for the sending off against Newcastle. He wanted to fight for the team and didn’t want to be bullied by the Newcastle backline but the sending off incident is regrettable."
Jackson has made Chelsea's life all the more difficult
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It seems Jackson isn't trying to downplay the incident and protest his innocence, which is actually something we can respect.
The Senegalese forward will now miss the rest of Chelsea's Premier League campaign, and despite Chelsea's never-ending squad, the one position they couldn't really afford to lose someone is striker.
His ridiculous decision may have just made Chelsea's job all the more difficult in the Champions League race. On behalf of Sven Botman's beak, we say ... "Awww, what a shame"