Chelsea’s Carabao Cup run came to an end on Wednesday evening as a 2-1 defeat in the second leg at the Emirates was enough to see Arsenal into the final at Wembley. Eden Hazard’s early goal looked to give the Blues a platform to build on but a toothless performance followed with two lucky deflections providing both goals for the Gunners.
Without a recognised striker, Chelsea took control of the game from the very start and had the ball in the net within minutes of kick off. Cesar Azpilicueta produced his trademark cross from deep and there was Pedro to send a bullet headed past David Ospina but as the Spaniard ran off to celebrate, the flag was up and the goal disallowed. No matter though as Pedro made amends with an incisive ball into the path on Eden Hazard who slotted it past the goalkeeper with his left foot and the Belgian put his team in the lead on the night and on aggregate.
However, just minutes later, Arsenal replied from a corner which was met by Nacho Monreal and, after two deflections off the heads of Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger, the ball found itself in Willy Caballero’s net. Chelsea’s misfortune didn’t seem to knock their confidence and they continued the way they had started with Tiemoue Bakayoko, having arguably his best game in a Chelsea shirt, and N’Golo Kante controlling things nicely in the middle of the park. Willian’s hamstrung gave way and he couldn’t continue so Ross Barkley came on in his place for his Chelsea debut, playing as part of the front three.
The former Everton man went right into the thick of the action, earning a couple of free kicks while also dishing out some over enthusiastic tackles. Towards the end of the first half, he broke forward into space in the Arsenal half but his pass to Victor Moses came too late and was cut out. The Gunners broke and the ball made its way to Mesut Ozil who shimmied into the penalty area and saw his shot deflect off Andreas Christensen and bounce just wide of the far post. A lucky escape for Chelsea who would’ve been extremely unfortunate to go into the break a goal down after controlling much of the opening stages.
Things changed though in the second half as Arsenal grew into the game as it went on. Hazard had a chance to put his side back in front but couldn’t make it into the Arsenal box before losing his balance and toppling over with his own momentum. The home team were moving the ball into dangerous areas out wide and managed to create their goal, although somewhat inadvertently, from the right-hand side with Alexandre Lacazette. The striker’s cross hit Rudiger and landed perfectly for Granit Xhaka who poked past Caballero and gave his side the lead.
Michy Batshuayi was brought on to try and add some kind of attacking threat to a flat Chelsea team but it was no good and Arsenal were happy to sit back and counter. They almost found their third goal in exactly that way but Alex Iwobi couldn’t guide his effort past Caballero who made himself big in the Chelsea goal. Hazard and Barkley were doing their best to break down the Arsenal barricade but the best chance fell to Rudiger whose headed effort had no conviction or control to it and it sailed over the crossbar after Hazard’s cross. Davide Zappacosta, on for the lacklustre Victor Moses, managed to force a corner in the last minute of injury time but Barkley’s set piece summed up his and Chelsea’s night as it was headed away by the first man.
The Blues now switch their attention to Newcastle on Saturday in the FA Cup and Antonio Conte will hope to have the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata available for that one after missing this dreary encounter at the Emirates.
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