Chelsea to exploit little-known Carabao Cup loophole to allow BANNED star to play vs Brighton

CHELSEA could make the most of a little-known loophole ahead of their Carabao Cup clash with Brighton on Wednesday.

Nicolas Jackson is eligible to play – despite picking up a ban on Sunday.

AlamyNicolas Jackson CAN play against Brighton tomorrow[/caption]

GettyMalo Gusto is still suspended after picking up a straight red card[/caption]

The striker was hit with a one game suspension after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season against Aston Villa.

But yellow card bans don’t cross over to the Carabao Cup, so he can be named in Mauricio Pochettino‘s squad.

However, red cards do, meaning Malo Gusto can’t be selected.

The right-back was shown a straight red for a horror challenge on Lucas Digne at the weekend.

He was initially booked for the foul, but the referee upgraded the card from yellow to red following a VAR review.

Chelsea suffered a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday, leaving them 14th in the Premier League table with five points from six games.

After the match, Pochettino admitted he was “disappointed” that two of his players picked up unnecessary bans.

He said: “We were talking, we need to grow up like a team, not only in an individual way.

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“I think players like Nico who are so young and feeling the Premier League and is learning, they need time.

“In this type of game, we are competing and want to win and football is about winning but also players, when they are young, need to learn, and experience and make mistakes.

“That’s why we feel disappointed as there are too many situations like this and I agree with you too many things like this and in the end we are losing the game and we are in situation we need to change as soon as possible.”