FULL TIME: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (agg 2-1)
Nope! Arsenal deal with the corner without fuss, and the referee blows for full time! They’ll meet Manchester City at Wembley next month in the 2018 League Cup final! And what a performance they put in to book their place, checking Chelsea’s early momentum, taking advantage of the breaks that went their way, and by the end fully deserving victory in this tight tie. Could this finally be Arsene Wenger’s year in the League Cup? Meanwhile Antonio Conte’s wait for cup success in his managerial career goes on.
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90 min +4: Hazard, out on the left, sends a dipping cross into the Arsenal box. It’s a fine ball, but nobody in blue attacks it. Ospina drops to his knees and grabs the ball. But Chelsea are soon coming back again, Zappacosta bringing down a desperate hoof with great style and earning a corner on the right. They couldn’t, could they?
90 min +3: Space for Barkley, 25 yards out. He shapes to shoot but Wilshere picks his pocket. The tension is palpable!
90 min +2: Alonso bursts down the left but another pinball deflection goes Arsenal’s way: his cross hits Bellerin and comes back off his boot. Goal kick.
90 min +1: Ozil is sent scampering into the Chelsea half, pretty much on his own. But he was offside.
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90 min: Hazard, dropping deep to influence a desperate Chelsea attack, lifts a pass down the right for Zappacosta, who can’t keep the ball in play. Goal kick. There will be four added minutes. Put another way: Arsenal are four minutes away from a final tie with Manchester City!
88 min: Alonso converts in the rugby style. That was as wild as they come.
87 min: Barkley tries to hold the ball up, 30 yards from the Arsenal goal. Mustafi comes through the back of him. Not a booking, but it’s a free kick in a very interesting position for Chelsea. The Emirates falls silent in fear/anticipation (delete according to viewpoint).
86 min: Mustafi hoicks a pass down the middle, and Xhaka is free and in space! But the ball is dropping over his shoulder, and with Chelsea breath on his neck, he can only help it to harmlessly bounce wide left of the goal.
85 min: This game is now a nervy mess. Nobody can string more than two passes together! And they say the League Cup doesn’t mean anything these days. Pah!
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84 min: Lacazette is replaced by Kolasinac, while Iwobi is sacrificed for Ramsey. Arsenal plan to hold on to what they have.
82 min: Zappacosta, out on the right, hooks deep for Alonso, tight on the byline to the left of goal. Alonso tries his best Marco van Basten impersonation, but his screaming volley is blocked. From the corner, the ball hits Rudiger on the back, six yards out. The big man deserves a bit of luck tonight when it comes to strange bounces and odd deflections, but this one balloons over the bar harmlessly.
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80 min: Yes, mistakes are being made all right. Ozil slips a pass down the right to send Lacazette into space, then goes off into the centre to await a simple return. Lacazette shanks a terrible cross backwards, setting Zappacosta away down the opposite flank! Fortunately for Arsenal, Monreal is on the case and runs the Chelsea man out of play.
78 min: Chelsea go up the other end and earn a corner, Hazard flashing a shot-cum-cross through the six-yard box from the left. Nothing comes of the set piece. But the nerves are beginning to jangle at the Emirates, as both defences begin to tire and make a few mistakes. Gaps are opening up.
76 min: Iwobi should have wrapped this tie up! Arsenal ping the ball down the right in pretty triangles, Lacazette, Ozil and Bellerin at the heart of it. Bellerin rolls a pass down the right, Ozil rolls it into the centre, and Iwobi, free, aims for the bottom right. But doesn’t meet it truly, and hits it straight at Caballero, who kicks clear. What a chance to book a date at Wembley!
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75 min: Alonso has a blast from 25 yards on the left. It’s as wild as it is ambitious.
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74 min: Chelsea press Arsenal back for the first time in a while. Alonso and Hazard threaten to open the hosts up down the left. Not quite. And with that, the rare period of pressure is released. On the touchline, Antonio Conte looks concerned, and no wonder: his side were on top in the first half, but since the break they’ve been second best by some distance.
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73 min: For once, a ricochet goes Chelsea’s way, Bellerin’s cross from the right coming off Alonso, back onto the Arsenal wing back, and out for a goal kick.
72 min: Zappacosta comes on for Moses. That’s Chelsea’s last throw of the dice.
71 min: A magnificent Gazza-esque burst down the inside-left channel by Wilshere nearly opens Chelsea up. He lays off to Ozil on the left. Ozil checks, and the momentum is gone. Wilshere has turned his career around marvellously this season.
70 min: Kante charges Lacazette to the ground. It’s a fair bump with the shoulder, but Lacazette wants the yellow card shown. The referee simply reminds Kante not to get overly aggressive.
69 min: Xhaka slides a pass down the right for Bellerin, who reaches the area and checks. A pass inside for Lacazette, who lays off for the man who started the whole move off. Xhaka rushes in and blooters harmessly goalward.
67 min: Hazard tries to turn the tide, dribbling with purpose down the right. He’s upended by Monreal, who is booked for his trouble. Chelsea have a free kick, which is sent into a crowded box. Arsenal clear without too much ceremony.
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65 min: Chelsea make their second change of the night, Batshuayi replacing Pedro.
64 min: Chelsea can’t get out right now. Bellerin and Wilshire probe down the Arsenal right, and the visitors do very well to keep their shape.
62 min: Moses flies in on Iwobi and is booked. The decision goes to VAR: was Moses out of control, studs up? The decision comes: no. We move on.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (Xhaka 60); agg 2-1
For the second time tonight, a deflection off Rudiger costs Chelsea dear! Lacazette busies himself down the inside-right channel. He reaches the byline and checks, attempting a pullback into the mixer. The ball ricochets off Rudiger and flies across the face of the six-yard box. Xhaka, at the near post, acts with the poacher’s instinct of a striker, and prods the loose ball home!
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59 min: Iwobi races down the left, his low cross hooked over his own bar by Christensen. The corner isn’t all that. But Arsenal are the dominant force in this game for the first time tonight.
58 min: Wilshere, who has been busy and impressive this evening, wedges gently down the left to release Lacazette into the Chelsea box. Lacazette is free, but up goes the flag again, correctly this time. The striker went too early.
57 min: Elneny hooks a ball down the left wing to release Ozil. Again the flag goes up for offside on a hair trigger. Ozil looked level. That’s happened on a couple of occasions to Arsenal tonight.
55 min: Now it’s Arsenal’s turn to ping the ball around without doing anything particularly constructive. But they’ll be happy to make Chelsea do the chasing for once. Arsenal have been much improved since the restart.
54 min: Hazard goes dribbling down the inside-right channel, and stumbles to the ground just before he reaches the area. Chelsea claim a light clip by Mustafi, trotting behind, but there doesn’t seem to be any contact, and the referee waves play on. The ball is sent out for a throw on the right. From that, Hazard shoots towards the bottom right but the effort is deflected. The corner isn’t any cop.
52 min: Rudiger nibbles at Lacazette down the Arsenal right and that’s a free kick in a very dangerous position. Arsenal load the box; Xhaka takes; the flag goes up for offside. This is better from Arsenal, though.
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50 min: For the first time in the match, Arsenal pin Chelsea back. Iwobi nearly dribbles his way through down the left. Not quite. Then Monreal crosses. Suddenly Chelsea break! Hazard skedaddles down the middle of the park and is preparing to shoot from the edge of the Arsenal box when Koscielny slides in to save the day. Good end-to-end fun.
48 min: Iwobi nips in from the left and flicks to Lacazette, who bustles to make some space on the edge of the area. He slightly miscontrols, the ball breaking to Xhaka, who fizzes a rising shot well over the bar. Lacazette seethes slightly; he was trying to work something out for himself there.
46 min: Space for Moses down the right. He eventually runs into trouble, but for a second it looked like Chelsea were going to start fast again, with Hazard screaming for the ball down the inside-right channel and the home team light at the back.
Here we go again, then! Arsenal get the fourth chapter of this two-legged semi-final underway. No changes.
Half-time reading:
HALF TIME: Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea (agg 1-1)
And that’s that for the first half. Chelsea were the better side, certainly in terms of possession and territory, but they didn’t carve out too many chances and the teams go in level. This is poised beautifully for the most dramatic and tense of second halves. We still don’t know who will meet Manchester City at Wembley next month. We’ll find out soon enough. Don’t leave!
45 min +3: Wilshere dribbles down the inside-right channel and flicks a ball forward for Ozil, who is suddenly in the area with only Christensen and Caballero in front of him. He looks for the bottom left, and a clip off Christensen nearly spins the ball into the corner, but it drifts wide of the post at the last. The corner leads to nothing.
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45 min +2: In the second of three added minutes, Elneny has a shot from 25 yards. It slams straight into Kante. The crowd claim for a hand ball, but the players don’t really bother.
45 min: A rare Arsenal foray into Chelsea’s final third. Ozil, dropping deep, rolls a fine pass down the left wing to spring Iwobi free, but the flag goes up. Iwobi looked level with the last man Rudiger, but he doesn’t get the decision.
44 min: Moses breaks down the right, nearly releases Barkley, then has another run down the same wing. His cross causes a little bit of panic in the Arsenal area, but Bakayoko can’t shift his feet to get a snapshot away.
42 min: More of the sterile Chelsea passing. Arsenal do a lot of chasing down. Suddenly Pedro and Alonso combine down the left to cause a bit of bother down the wing, but Pedro’s cross is easily cleared by Mustafi. “It’s not a good sign when Elneny seems to be the Arsenal player most in possession,” opines Charles Antaki. “That usually means the square pass and the worrying location of Xhaka somewhere risky. All we’re missing is Alexis Sánchez gesturing furiously out on the left.”
40 min: Ozil dribbles with purpose and style down the left, and is stopped unfairly by Christensen. A free kick, and a chance for Arsenal to load the box. Ozil floats the set piece in. Monreal meets it with a header, but there’s no pinball wizardry this time. The ball sails harmlessly into the arms of Caballero.
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39 min: After a wild start, this game has settled down considerably. Chelsea are hogging the ball, but to no great effect at the moment.
37 min: Hazard zips down the left wing, checks, spins and goes again. Bellerin is beaten. Hazard makes his way to the byline, and into the area, and his low cross is hoicked out for a corner by Koscielny. The corner leads to diddly squat.
35 min: Chelsea stroke the ball hither and yon, making Arsenal do a lot of chasing. They don’t really go anywhere in particular, but they’ll be running down Arsenal’s energy. They’ve enjoyed the lion’s share of possession in this first half.
33 min: And now Barkley’s taken out Bellerin as the Arsenal man chased down the right! No booking, but it’s a needless challenge, just to the right of the Chelsea box. A free kick in a very dangerous position. Xhaka takes, looking to surprise Caballero by whipping one from a tight angle towards the top right. It nearly goes in, too, clipping off the back of Hazard in a two-man wall. (Barkley the other man in that wall, needless to say, he’s everywhere right now, one way or another.) The ball flies over the bar, and the resulting corner leads to nothing.
31 min: Barkley’s had a busy introduction to the game all right. Now he’s scythed to the floor by Wilshere, who had miscontrolled the ball in the midfield and went after it with scant regard for his immediate environs. It’s a no-brainer of a booking.
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30 min: On comes Barkley. Within seconds, he’s chasing a long pass down the left wing. He nearly beats Koscielny in the foot race, but can’t control the ball as it goes out for a goal kick. Koscielny nudges him in the back to make sure he slides across the turf nipples first. The crowd enjoyed that.
28 min: Willian, a picture of misery, trudges off. On the touchline, Ross Barkley prepares to make his debut for Chelsea. For now, the game restarts and the visitors continue with ten men.
27 min: Willian pulls up, holding his hamstring. It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to continue. It’s a big blow for Chelsea.
25 min: Chelsea win a corner down the left, then pin Arsenal back in their own box for a bit. Moses has a shot from distance that’s blocked, then the dependably brilliant Azpilicueta swings a pass to the left. Ospina comes off his line rashly, and is beaten to the ball near the byline by Pedro, who pulls back for Hazard ... who sends a rabona cross into the centre. Nobody there in blue, and Arsenal clear easily, but full marks for style.
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23 min: Chelsea stroke it around the middle awhile, reestablishing their early dominance in terms of possession, if not territory.
21 min: Arsenal play a long pass down the middle of the park, which nearly sends Lacazette clear! Christensen sticks to his shoulder, though, and doesn’t give up a shooting chance. Eventually the ball bobbles through to Caballero, and the danger is over. This is a gloriously open game. Let’s hope neither coach works out how to shut it down.
20 min: Chelsea settle themselves quickly enough, though. Pedro, tight on the left touchline, plays a pass inside for Hazard, but Chelsea’s star man dummies instead of trapping on the edge of the box. The ball sails through to Willian, who for a split second is one on one with Ospina! He looks for the bottom right, but drags it well wide.
18 min: Chelsea had started so brightly, but look slightly miffed in the wake of that crazy equaliser. Under no pressure, Azpilicueta sprays a wild ball out of play down the left, and frowns quite a lot.
17 min: ... and he’s brought down on the halfway line in the cynical fashion by Hazard. That’s the first booking of the match.
16 min: ... Rudiger causes a whole load of fuss in the Arsenal box. Then Willian works hard for another corner. That second one is intercepted immediately by Arsenal, who break upfield through Ozil ...
15 min: What a start to this game! Puts the first leg to shame. Moses makes good down the right and earns Chelsea a corner. From which ...
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea (Monreal 12); agg 1-1
Yes, Arsenal have finally woken up! Bellerin dances down the right and earns himself enough space to whip a ball through the six-yard box. The ball’s poked out on the left by Rudiger for a corner. The set piece is swung into the mixer. Monreal meets it, 12 yards out with his head. Then pure farce, as the ball clanks off Alonso’s head to the right, then clips Rudiger’s head and flies back off to the left ... and in, past a hugely confused and flat-footed Caballero. That might officially count as a Rudiger own goal, but let’s give it to Monreal, whose header before the double-pinball madness looked on target.
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10 min: Caballero took a whack on the knee in making that save. A mop down with the magic sponge sees him up and about again.
9 min: Arsenal need to score twice this evening now, though Chelsea’s away goal won’t count until the end of extra time. With this in mind, the home side finally string a few passes together. Ozil and Lacazette exchange passes down the left and nearly open Chelsea up. Then another phase sees Iwobi sweep a pass into the Chelsea box from the left. Wilshere is racing down the inside-left channel, hoping to meet the ball first and poke it past Caballero. The Chelsea keeper gets there first, though only just, palming the ball away from Wilshere, and from danger.
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GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea (Hazard 7); agg 0-1
We’re barely seven minutes in, and yet this has been coming. It’s so simple, too, Pedro dropping deep to roll a pass down the middle of the park. Arsenal’s defence has been split in two, and Hazard races clear. He draws Ospina and slips the ball under him.
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6 min: What a bright start by Chelsea, though. Arsenal have barely sniffed the ball yet.
5 min: Chelsea put the ball in the net, but it’s offside. Azpilicueta, quarterbacking from deep, wedges a ball over the Arsenal back line. Pedro, running into the box, meets the dropping ball with a header, guiding it into the top right. It’s a fine finish, but he’d gone far too soon and was clearly offside. He doesn’t bother complaining.
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4 min: Monreal upendes Hazard on the halfway line. Nothing serious, just letting Chelsea’s playmaker know he’s there. Then Iwobi plays a loose pass on the edge of his own area, inviting needless pressure. Bakayoko looks for the top right from distance, but the shot is deflected out for a corner. From that, Moses takes another shot from the edge of the box, but it’s wide right and lame. The visitors very much on the front foot.
2 min: Kante bursts down the inside-right channel, a most proactive move. He’s bundled off the ball, the Arsenal defence closing ranks and doing their job. But maybe there’s a very early sign that Chelsea aren’t just here to sit back and soak up pressure from the home side.
After a warm and friendly handshake between the two managers, we’re off! Chelsea get the ball rolling. The Emirates is bubbling away nicely.
The teams are out! Arsenal are in their famous red shirts with white sleeves; Chelsea in their equally storied blue. It’s a major cup semi-final, with a place at Wembley at stake ... and it’s a London derby between two bitter rivals, so the atmosphere, unlike the weather, is hot, hot, hot! And before we begin, just a quick recap of the rules and regulations: away goals count, but only at the end of extra time, so the only score that will take us to penalty kicks is 0-0 after 120 minutes. Oh, the VAR system is in use tonight, too, so good luck to all the officials. We’ll be off in a minute!
Antonio Conte speaks! “We have prepared and want to reach the final. We have to put in a good performance. This is a big challenge, a massive game for us, but also for Arsenal. There is a lot of balance between these two teams and we will see what happens.”
Arsene Wenger speaks! “We are good teams that know each other very well. The more we play each other, the more we know each other’s strengths. But we never can predict. The last game in the Premier League was a very open game, the first tie in this competition was very blocked. So let’s see what will happen tonight. These are always tight games, a semi final, and whether you are favourite or not you want to win the game. We play at home, we have an opportunity to go to the final and we want to take it.”
Meanwhile there’s been some big transfer news involving Chelsea. And here it is.
Arsenal make four changes to the team named in the first leg at Stamford Bridge. In come Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny and Mesut Özil; Calum Chambers and Ainsley Maitland-Niles drop to the bench, while Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck miss out altogether. New man Henrikh Mkhitaryan played in Manchester United’s quarter-final defeat at Bristol City, so has to wait to make his debut for the Gunners.
Chelsea also make four changes from the first leg. In come Willy Caballero, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Willian and Pedro; Danny Drinkwater drops to the bench, while Thibaut Courtois, Álvaro Morata and Cesc Fàbregas are all injured. Box-fresh signing Ross Barkley is on the bench and will be raring to start his Chelsea career tonight.
The teams
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal, Elneny, Ozil, Wilshere, Xhaka, Iwobi, Lacazette.
Subs: Ramsey, Chambers, Maitland-Niles, Kolasinac, Macey, Nelson, Nketiah.
Chelsea: Caballero, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Willian, Pedro, Hazard.
Subs: Drinkwater, Barkley, Zappacosta, Batshuayi, Cahill, Luiz, Eduardo.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).
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Preamble
This is the fifth meeting between Arsenal and Chelsea this season. So far, the Gunners have enjoyed the upper hand ... just. They won the Community Shield on penalties; eked out a draw in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge; scored a last-minute equaliser in the League at the Emirates; and held Chelsea again at their place in the first leg of this League Cup semi. Throw in last year’s FA Cup final, and it’s fair to say Chelsea are overdue something positive to take away from this intense rivalry.
You couldn’t fit a cigarette paper between the teams, though. Both thrashed struggling Premier League opposition at the weekend: Arsenal hit four in a 16-minute burst against Crystal Palace, Chelsea scored four on the road at Brighton & Hove Albion. But before those spirit-replenishing wins, neither team had won in five. Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup at Nottingham Forest and lost dismally at Bournemouth, while Chelsea registered three goalless draws on the bounce and required penalties to squeak past Norwich City in the cup. Form and confidence is at a premium. But it wouldn’t take much for both teams to snap back to their brilliant best, either.
All of which suggests this League Cup semi-final second leg is balanced on a knife-edge. “It has always been very tight ... it’s very unpredictable,” says Arsene Wenger, while Antonio Conte admits: “When you play against Arsenal, you must be prepared to suffer.” Good luck predicting the outcome of this, then. Who will make a date with Manchester City at Wembley on February 25? We might need extra time, and even penalty kicks, to find out. It’s on!
Kick off: 8pm GMT.
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