Chelsea make the short trip across London for tonight’s crunch semi-final clash against Arsenal as we look to battle it out for a place in the final of the Carabao Cup.
The Blues failed to score during their dominant home display at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, and will now have to come and beat us at the Emirates to have any hope of reaching the final.
Manchester City booked their place with a 3-2 victory (5-3 on aggregate) over Bristol City last night, and the Sky Blues will be keeping an eye on tonight’s match-up to find out who they will have to beat to lift the League Cup.
Bookmakers are struggling to pick a favourite for the tie, with both sides available at bigger than 6/4 to win inside the 90 minutes, but you would have to say with home advantage we should be taking this down.
Our opponents come into the match without Spanish duo Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata, taking a huge chunk of our opponents attacking talent out of the tie, and this could well play into our hands.
We will be without Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck for the tie, but should welcome back Aaron Ramsey and Nacho Monreal, who are both much more important to our starting line-up. The former may well have to stay on the bench to accommodate the thoroughly impressive Jack Wilshere, but could play a part in the match later on.
Predicted XI:
Ospina
Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Bellerin Xhaka Wilshere Maitland-Niles
Ozil Iwobi
Lacazette
This team should have more than enough in it to bring the game to Chelsea, although it remains to be seen whether Wenger will be fielding his best possible XI, an option he has neglected to take in this competition on many occasions.
Should this team start the match, I would expect us to win, and a 2-1 win over the 90 minutes would be my prediction.
Would the above line-up make us favourites to qualify? Will Wenger choose his best XI for the encounter?
Pat J