📅 October 31, 2026
Chelsea 2-0 Man United: Lisandro Martinez Throws It Away in Four Minutes
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Lisandro Martínez lost this game for Manchester United. Two yellow cards in four minutes, a penalty given away, and a side that had been the better team in the first half was down to ten men and two goals behind before the hour was up. Chelsea won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, with Morgan Rogers scoring and Cole Palmer converting the penalty.
United have now gone nine games without a win in all competitions, their longest run since 1988, according to the BBC via the AP, and The Analyst.
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Four minutes that ended it
At 59 minutes Martínez was booked for pulling back Rogers during a Chelsea attack, as 101 Great Goals and Sports Mole both report. He was already on thin ice.
Moments later, from a Palmer corner, he went into Wesley Fofana with his arm raised. The AP says he jumped “with a raised elbow” and caught Fofana in the face. Referee Peter Bankes waved play on, then went to the pitchside monitor after a VAR check. He gave the penalty and showed Martínez a second yellow. Palmer scored from the spot at 64 minutes.
For a senior defender who had just been brought back into the side, it’s indefensible. He was already on a yellow and it was a set piece he only had to defend. That one arm gave Chelsea a penalty, a two-goal lead and an extra man for the last half hour. It’s his second Premier League red card of 2026, after the one at Leeds in April, as The Analyst notes.
The first goal
Chelsea’s opener came five minutes into the second half. Roméo Lavia won the ball after United gave it away in their own half and sent Rogers away. Rogers drove through the middle, went past Harry Maguire, and lifted his finish over Senne Lammens, as Dave and 101 Great Goals describe it. The Analyst called United’s defending for it “truly terrible.”
The goal hurt, but at 1-0 there were 40 minutes left and United had been in the game. It was the red card that ended it.
United were the better side before the break
That’s what makes it worse. Opta’s numbers via The Analyst have United on 1.09 expected goals in the first half to Chelsea’s 0.28. Sports Mole has Bruno Fernandes firing over from close range on 19 minutes and a Matheus Cunha goal ruled out for offside before the break. Carrick’s team, the exact XI we’d predicted, had a plan and it was working.
After the break it was 2.33 to 0.08 the other way, by the same Opta figures. Some of that is the goal, and most of it is playing half an hour with ten men.
What Carrick said
“Things have gone against us, and gone against us in a big way,” Carrick said, as reported by the AP. “It unraveled quickly.” On the red card: “It has a major importance on the game. A huge moment.”
Asked by TNT Sports whether he felt let down by Martínez, he answered with one word, “No”, as Britbrief reported. That’s the only outlet we found with that exchange, so it’s attributed. He didn’t look at Martínez as the defender walked off, the same report says.
Bryan Mbeumo told the AP: “I think the mentality was there right from the first minute. We still trust everyone.”
Our view
Carrick picked the right team, and his players followed the plan for 45 minutes. Then the defender who earlier this month criticised the club’s recruitment threw the game away with a stupid arm at a corner, on a yellow card.
Martínez wanted more ambition from the people above him. Today the dressing room needed some discipline from him. This one is on him, and it may cost Carrick his job.
What’s next
United were 16th, one point above the relegation zone, before today’s other games, and the AP says they could be in the bottom three by the end of the round. Roma come to Old Trafford in the Champions League on Tuesday, and Martínez misses the next league game, at home to Aston Villa on Sunday 8 November.
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Sources: Score, scorers, minutes, the assist and the booking times from ESPN’s match data and the Premier League’s match data (fixture 129006). The first booking, the challenge on Fofana, the VAR check and the referee from 101 Great Goals, Dave and Sports Mole. The raised elbow, Carrick’s and Mbeumo’s quotes, the 1988 record and the bottom-three warning from the AP via WTOP. Expected goals, the Leeds red card and “truly terrible” from The Analyst (Opta). The Fernandes miss and Cunha’s disallowed goal are from Sports Mole alone. Carrick’s “No” from Britbrief, citing TNT Sports. The suspension follows the standard one-match ban for a dismissal for two bookings.