Date: 2nd March 2019 at 9:17am
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A Blue Up North reviews Chelsea’s second leg in the League Cup against Tottenham Hotspur.

On Thursday evening, Chelsea played host to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur in their second leg of this season’s League Cup semi final. The Blues had lost the first leg 1-0 and had just 90 minutes to turn the tie around.

Last season’s Premier League champions Manchester City were awaiting the winners after they had romped to a very comfortable victory over minnows Burton Albion, but there were bigger issues at stake for the Chelsea faithful.

Prior to losing the first leg at Wembley Stadium on 24 January, The Blues had lost 3-1 both home and away to Spurs last year, meaning Chelsea were staring at a 4th consecutive loss to their bitterest rivals for the first time in nearly 50 years. And after some soporific showings recently, the Chelsea faithful were in dire need of a true blue performance.

Maurizio Sarri made 3 changes to the starting line up from the defeat at Arsenal. The manager had chastised his team after their weak display at The Emirates and was hoping for a positive reaction from his squad.

Emerson replaced the overworked and recently struggling Marcos Alonso, while Ross Barkley started in place of Mateo Kovacic in midfield and Olivier Giroud was drafted in to lead the attack, allowing Eden Hazard to finally return to his favoured wing role and Willian was moved to the substitute’s bench.

The manager and supporters will be very happy with what they saw, especially in the first half. The visitors may have been missing a number of their star players, but they still had a robust and powerful look about their defence and midfield.

The Blues were soon in to their stride and took the game to their opponents. Hazard, Pedro, Emerson and Barkley all looked lively and after some fairly persistent possession, a poor defensive header fell to an unmarked N’Golo Kante on the edge of the area. His low stoke nutmeged 3 Spurs players, including keeper Gazzanga on it’s way in to the back of the net.

For once, The Blues did not just rest back after taking the lead and kept up the pressure as they looked to take the overall lead in the tie. Then on 38 minutes, with 5 Chelsea players swarming all over the Spurs’ penalty area, Cesar Azpilicueta’s low cross was converted by Hazard and a fully deserved turn around in the scores was complete.

Unfortunately a great first 45 minutes for The Blues was not capped off with a third goal and at the start of the second half the visitors were able to counter attack with belief and purpose. One such run down the left wing and cross by substitute Danny Rose was converted by the relatively ineffective Fernando Llorente. The striker looked as surprised as all watching on that he had the chance to connect to the cross all thanks to David Luiz ignoring the ball. The Brazilian defender kept his focus on the player and was in a spin on the spot as the striker put out a leg which beat the hapless Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal.

With no away goals rule and no extra time, we were just 40 minutes from penalties. The Blues, with Hazard spearheading most of their best attacks looked the more likely to regain the lead in the tie.

The Belgian twice shot narrowly wide and Giroud was inches from heading a beautiful cross from Emerson, but no winning goal arrived and so the result would be decided by a penalty shootout.

So many times the lottery that is used to decide big cup ties can be so cruel against the team who played the better football and deserved the victory,  the Champions League Final in Moscow is one example, but this time the shootout went with the better side in the tie.

Chelsea had played well and showed great character in the first leg at Wembley and richly deserved to win the second leg at home. Willian, Azpilicueta, Jorginho and Luiz all kept their composure and converted their spot kicks, with the latter 2 dispatching their shots with a commanding authority.

For the visitors, Moura was denied by Kepa Arrizabalaga, who dived correctly for all 4 of their penalties, and some justice was returned as Eric Dier missed the target. The England midfielder was extremely fortunate to still be on the field of play and could only thank a poor performance from experienced referee Martin Atkinson who failed to enforce the rules of the game on Spurs players who were over robust in challenges and deliberately fouling their opponent.

So Chelsea progressed to yet another final, 15 in the last 16 years, but it is far from plain sailing at Stamford Bridge currently. They may have won a tough semi final and still be fighting in all 4 competitions this season, but this was against a very weakened Spurs and the odds will be stacked hugely against Maurizio Sarri winning his first ever trophy as a manager within 7 months on his tenure in West London.

The Italian is struggling to keep any consistency in his team’s level of performance and must be scratching his head as to why they can’t return to the levels they were playing at during their unbeaten start to the season. The sooner he can rekindle that spirit, the sooner the belief will return of Chelsea’s ability to finish in the top 4 and also win a cup trophy.

However, they are back at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 24 February in what will be a great day out for all the supporters attending and watching on and they are only 90 minutes from yet more silverware and both the manager and the players deserve huge credit for reaching the Final.

Written by Jon Ellis, home and away season ticket holder. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue

 

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