Nicolas Jackson will be suspended for Chelsea’s top five run-in after he was sent off during the 2-0 defeat away at Newcastle.
The Senegalese striker was chasing a long ball when he appeared to catch Sven Botman with his forearm in the face.
The challenge was enough to see the Dutch centre-back fall to the floor, with VAR sending referee John Brookes to the monitor.
He now misses the remaining two matches of the season, against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest – with the outcome against Forest likely to decide the Blues’ Champions League fate.
Jackson will also miss the 2025/26 Premier League opening game.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said: “For him, the season is finished. We have still two Premier League games that are both important and the red card, I said that if the referee decides it’s a red card its because they decide and they are convinced its a red card.
“The only thing is that for some decisions sometimes it looks to easy to make some decisions in this stadium with this noise.”
Both teams were level on 63 points heading into today, but the win for Newcastle has pushed them up into third place and only two points behind Arsenal in second.
They face the Gunners at the Emirates stadium next week before hosting Everton on the final day, needing just three more points to guarantee a Champions League spot.
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: “I thought Chelsea did really well but we hung in there. We’re on the road to what we want to do this season, but there’s still a lot of work to do and two tough fixtures to play. The size of the prize is huge, the players are aware of that.”
At half-time, Maresca introduced Reece James for Noni Madueke which allowed Moises Caicedo to go back into his normal defensive midfielder role from inverted right-back, whilst Cole Palmer drifted as a false nine.
The tactics certainly improved the Blues, who started to dominate possession after suffering without it for most of the first-half.
However, the lack of a striker meant Chelsea failed to take any of their chances, with the best one coming from the head of Reece James inside the box.
Maresca praised: “Second half the team showed effort, spirit, energy, unbelievable. We must keep this spirit and energy for Friday.
“We had three clear chances in the second half, Cucurella, Enzo and Reece. The important thing is to arrive there. Unfortunately we didn’t score.”
Sandro Tonali opened the scoring inside two minutes after Romeo Lavia was robbed of the ball on the edge of his penalty area.
Jackson saw red in the 35th minute as frustration combined with petulance saw him flail has arm towards Botman’s face.
The points were wrapped up by the Toon Army in the 90th minute as Bruno Guimaraes’ long-range shot took a wicked deflection that looped over the helpless Robert Sanchez and into the top corner.