Chelsea punished by little-known FA rule during Carabao Cup win as bench descends into chaos

Chelsea fell foul of a brand new rule during their 2-0 win over Luton Town in the Carabao Cup second round.

On Thursday night, Chelsea booked their spot in the Carabao Cup third round with a dominant 2-0 win over League One's Luton Town at Stamford Bridge.

New signing Danny Welbeck scored on his Chelsea debut to put the hosts in the lead, with an own goal from Luton centre-back Hakeem Odoffin ensuring Chelsea's two goal win.

With the draw for the next round taking place on Wednesday, Chelsea already know that they will host Leeds United for an all Premier League clash either in the week beginning September 7 or September 14.

The result marked two back-to-back wins for Xabi Alonso in his first season as Chelsea manager, having led his side to a 3-2 win over London rivals Fulham in his first match as a Premier League manager.

However, it appears there's still a bit of work for the Spaniard to do with his team, as one of his players made a mistake that saw them punished by a little-known rule introduced by the FA ahead of the season.

As of the 2026/27 season, a 10- second time limit has been introduced for players to leave the field when substituted.

If this time limit is exceeded, the substitute cannot enter until the first stoppage after at least one minute has passed.

This rule was introduced to try to speed up matches and make sure teams don't waste time with players walking slowly off the pitch when they're ahead in a match.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, Welbeck and teammate Joao Pedro fell foul of this rule when the former came off too slowly in the 75th minute of the match.

In a video shared on social media of the moment, Welbeck and Pedro embrace as the Chelsea goalscorer exits the pitch, only for the pitch side official to hold Pedro back as he tried to come on.

The moment caused immediate confusion as Welbeck and several members of Chelsea's staff immediately began questioning the officials about why Pedro wasn't allowed to join his teammates on the pitch, while fans started booing in frustration.

Eventually, Pedro was allowed to come on, with Chelsea fans further showing their anger at the new rule with sarcastic cheers and applause.

READ MORE: Chelsea fans reach Valentin Barco verdict during debut vs Luton Town

What new rules were introduced for the 2026/27 Premier League season?

The FA's new substitution rule was just one of several addressing injuries, restarts, substitutions, and VAR introduced this season.

Overall, the new rules have been brought in to try and reduce the amount of time during a match that is spent doing anything other than actually playing football.

For example, players who receive on-field injury treatment for an injury will now be required to leave for at least one minute, an increase from 30 seconds, with the aim being to remove the incentive for players to go down 'injured' to waste time.

Another rule now sees a five-second countdown take place for any restart, with a team forced to hand their opponents the ball if they are clearly delaying throw-ins and goal-kicks.

A more popular rule change will now allow VAR to review incorrectly-awarded second yellow cards that result in a red card.

Perhaps the most dramatic rule introduced will see tactical timeouts for goalkeeper injuries brought in on a trial basis.

This means that when a game is stopped for a goalkeeper injury, the manager will have to nominate an outfield player to leave the pitch immediately.

The nominated player has to stay off the pitch for at least one minute after the restart of play.

Pro Ref, the organisation that managers match officials for the Premier League, says the trial “is designed to address occasions where goalkeeper injuries have been used to disrupt momentum, slow the game down or create opportunities for tactical instruction”.