Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 tonight to book their place in the Carabao Cup final.
The Gunners started the match out of sorts, giving our rivals ample space in our half, and our defence did not look like they were going to enjoy the best of days.
The Blues had the ball in the back of our net twice inside the opening 10 minutes of the match, but thankfully one of those was ruled offside (correctly), but Eden Hazard’s neat shot into the bottom corner stood.
Their lead was short lived however, with Nacho Monreal getting onto a cross to head towards goal, only for it to pinball off two defenders in Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger and over Willy Caballero into the Chelsea goal.
I can’t recall another clean-cut chance in the first-half apart from when Lacazette burst onto a ball over the top, but the French striker fumbled the control and failed to get a shot away.
The start of the second-half was no better either, the Blues again had much of the ball, although our defending was much the more organised, and once again, a lucky rebound off Toni Rudiger gifts us another goal, with Lacazette’s blocked pass coming off the German international into the path of Granit Xhaka to shoot past the keeper with ease.
Chelsea were not willing to give up without a fight, and came at us, throwing Michy Batshuayi and a fresher-legged Davide Zappacosta to bring more impetus to their attack, but they couldn’t manage to create the necessary attacks to cause Ospina any real trouble.
In fact it was us this time who should have scored and put the game to bed, with Alex Iwobi being put through on goal, only for him to give Willy a fairly easy save with his foot, and that left us a nervy 15 minutes of football to endure.
Chelsea will be frustrated at having failed to win after two dominant displays, especially when they analyse just how unlucky they were to have conceded those two goals, but they should know that our defending in the second-half was all too good for them, and they will make the short trip back across London with their tail between their legs.
Will Conte be livid in his interview after the match? Does our defence deserve the plaudits for our victory? Would that second-half display have been good enough against finalists Man City?
Pat J