Chelsea underlined their exceptional disciplinary credentials on the final day of the season against Sunderland.Wesley Fofana’s red card in the 62nd minute at the Stadium of Light was Chelsea’s eighth player dismissal of the Premier League campaign, leaving them one shy of Sunderland in 2009-10 and QPR in 2011-12, who jointly hold the competition record for red cards received in a single season.Enzo Maresca’s dismissal against Liverpool in October brings Chelsea into that exclusive club — and including it is at least as valid as the Premier League’s Goal Accreditation Panel chalking up a Bart Verbruggen own goal as a record-breaking Bruno Fernandes assist.Chelsea also deserve a little leeway here, because their pedigree in this regard is unquestionably elite; they finished on 118 cards in the Premier League this season, six clear of nearest rivals Tottenham, and racked up a remarkable 11 reds across all competitions.Such prolific indiscipline should be recognised, and so The Athletic has decided to rank all of Chelsea’s red cards this season according to its highly sophisticated DAFT metric.In this system — which absolutely, unequivocally has not been invented by me solely for the purposes of creating an amusing acronym for this exercise — each red card is awarded a score from one to five based on: Damage (to the victim of the foul and the player’s own team), Avoidability, Force and Thoughtlessness. These scores are then tallied to give an overall score for the dismissal out of 20. The higher the score, the worse the offence.Clear enough? Good. Then, without further ado, let’s get into the Chelsea red card rankings, sorted from lowest DAFT score to highest.Joao Pedro, Chelsea 1-0 Benfica, September 30 (Champions League)What happened: Brought on as a second-half sub, Joao Pedro got one quick booking for accidentally catching Enzo Barrenechea with a flailing arm when competing for a high ball, then received another for lifting his foot too high near Leandro Barreiro’s head in the final minute.Damage: 1 — Chelsea won the game and Joao Pedro’s suspension only ruled him out of a 5-1 victory over Ajax. Barrenechea shook off the flailing arm, as did the pocket of air in front of Barreiro’s head.Avoidability: 2 — Both yellows were for slightly clumsy fouls committed in the course of pretty normal duels in a close game.Force: 1 — The flailing arm fell some way short of a Delap special and the high foot was just an attempt to control the ball.Thoughtlessness: 2 — Raising a boot to head height on a booking is always silly, but Joao Pedro couldn’t get away with ducking out of duels in a competitive Champions League game.DAFT Score: 6/20Joao Pedro was sent off against Benfica (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)Enzo Maresca, Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool, October 4 (Premier League)What happened: Chelsea’s former head coach was sent off for leaving his technical area and sprinting to join the mass celebration that followed Estevao’s late winner.Damage: 1 — Chelsea saw out the final seconds without Maresca and beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the City Ground as he served his touchline ban. He also avoided pulling a hamstring or damaging Malo Gusto’s shoulders as he jumped on them.Avoidability: 1 — How can you not lose yourself in celebration in a moment like that?Force: 1 — Maresca didn’t break any sprint records on his way down the touchline, and his puffer jacket cushioned the impact of his leap onto Gusto.Thoughtlessness: 5 — Don’t take my word for it — Maresca himself called it an “instinctive action”.DAFT Score: 8/20Trevoh Chalobah, Chelsea 1-3 Brighton, September 27 (Premier League)What happened: A loose Andrey Santos touch in the 53rd minute set two Brighton players through on goal. Trevoh Chalobah tried to win the ball from Diego Gomez from behind, but brought him down just outside the box. Straight red.Damage: 5 — Gomez was fine, and no penalty was conceded, but Chelsea were 1-0 up and in control when Chalobah was sent off. The dismissal allowed Brighton to turn the game, and they scored three times in the last 15 minutes, twice through Danny Welbeck and once through Maxim De Cuyper.Avoidability: 2 — Chalobah had to do something after Santos’ error and Gomez’s touch left the ball there to be won, but he would back himself to make a clean tackle there more often than not.