City, Chelsea Charged After Brawl  (Sky Sports)

The FA have charged Manchester City and Chelsea with failure to control their players during Saturday's game at the Etihad Stadium.

The Premier League-leading Blues secured a crucial 3-1 win in the lunchtime clash, which boiled over in the closing stages when City forward Sergio Aguero was red carded for an ugly challenge on David Luiz.

The incident led to a melee involving several players from both sides and City midfielder Fernandinho was dismissed for his role in the scuffle.

Both clubs have until 6pm on December 8 to respond to the charge.

However, Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas will not face any further action for his part in the incident which led to Fernandinho being dismissed for pushing the Spanish midfielder.

Aguero has already been handed a four-match suspension for his sending-off, his second dismissal for violent conduct this season - the first having been issued retrospectively after he was adjudged to have elbowed West Ham's Winston Reid in August.

Fernandinho will serve a three-match ban.

An FA statement read: "Both Manchester City and Chelsea have been charged for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour.

"It follows an incident in the 95th minute of the game on Saturday (December 3, 2016).

"Meanwhile, Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas will not face any further action in relation to an incident involving City's Fernandinho.

"Off the ball incidents which are not seen at the time by the match officials are referred to a panel of three former elite referees.

"Each referee panel member will review the video footage independently of one another to determine whether they consider it a sending-off offence.

"For retrospective action to be taken, and an FA charge to follow, the decision of the panel must be unanimous."

Fabregas was shown a yellow card by referee Anthony Taylor following the melee, for adopting an aggressive attitude, but his apparent slap of Fernandinho was not seen, so it could be reviewed by the panel.

City defender Nicolas Otamendi received his fifth booking of the season during the match to prompt an automatic one-match suspension, meaning Pep Guardiola's side will be without three players for Saturday's trip to champions Leicester.

And the two red cards against Chelsea take City's number of on-field dismissals to five already during Guardiola's reign.

After the Chelsea game, Guardiola said he was sorry that the brawl had occured, commenting: "It is a pity it finished like this. I don't like that, I apologise for what happened."