A Blue Up North previews our second leg trip to North London.
Wednesday evening sees Chelsea travel to North London for the second leg of the League Cup semi final against arch rivals Arsenal. The tie is perfectly poised at 0-0 after a stalemate at Stamford Bridge earlier this month. This may slightly favour The Gunners, but Antonio Conte will be happy that his side did not concede an away goal in the home leg. Any scoring draw at The Emirates will now see The Blues reach the final when the away goals rule kicks in at the end of extra time at the end of the second leg. In other words, the match is a must win for Arsene Wenger’s side.
Conte confirmed that he does not have a full squad to choose from with both Alvaro Morata and Cesc Fabregas unavailable with back and hamstring concerns. However Pedro is back available after serving his suspension while Thibaut Courtois, Gary Cahill and Danny Drinkwater may all return after injuries. Andreas Christensen has not suffered any long term affects from the clash of heads during the win at Brighton and is in contention to play.
After such a comprehensive score line last time out which was dominated by the quality of interplay of movement and passing between Chelsea’s front 3 the expectation would be to see the same line up starting on Wednesday. However Conte’s preference against the bigger sides, especially away from home has been to opt for a 3-5-2 formation. He also hinted at the need for compactness against The Gunners and he will probably have one eye on trying to ensure his side do not lose the match.
It would be a shame to not let the triumvirate of Hazard, Willian and Batshauyi lose on a slightly depleted Arsenal defence and even Eden Hazard himself has stated his preference of a more attack minded showing from The Blues.
Wenger’s Arsenal have certainly had the better of the results over Conte’s Chelsea and they always seem capable of raising their performance and application over the West Londoners recently.
However the Arsenal manager is now without Alexis Sanchez after his move to Manchester whilst new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan is cup-tied and not available for selection. Monreal, who scored 1 and assisted 2 goals in Arsenal’s easy victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday but then limped off looks likely to be included again and we should expect to see a very similar line up starting on Wednesday to the one that coasted to a 4-0 lead in just 22 minutes. This would mean another run out for the resurgent Jack Wilshere who was in fine form pulling the strings alongside Ozil from midfield.
The Gunners are no longer involved in this season’s FA Cup match and so have a weekend off after this match but it does also mean that the League Cup is their only hope of winning any domestic honours this season.
Meanwhile Chelsea are still fighting on all 4 fronts, although they currently sit 15 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City and take on Barcelona in the next round of the Champions League. So, along with a home tie this Sunday against Newcastle United in the 4th round of the FA Cup, this is The Blues’s best chance for silverware and the Chelsea faithful will be willing their side through to another Wembley showpiece.
Written by Jon Ellis. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue
