Arsenal vs Chelsea: Carabao Cup Semi Final
The Situation
Manchester City’s 5:3 aggregate victory over Bristol City in the other semi-final, ensured them a ticket to Wembley but who are they going to play with, that’s the main question?
While City had the luck to draw a Championship side, Arsene Wenger’s men will have to get past rivals Chelsea if they are to join The Citizens in the finals.
However, The Gunners enjoy a slight advantage playing the second leg at The Emirates, in front of home crowd. The first leg at Stamford Bridge was an exhausting, dull, 0:0 draw, but we expect a completely different game, this time around.
Arsenal
You certainly heard the news of Alexis Sanchez leaving the club for main rivals Manchester United with Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way as part of the deal.
Well, it can’t be any good, when your best player leave for a rival, especially when that same team is one of the hot candidates to jeopardize your aspirations of qualifying for Champions League next season.
However, only one man can quickly heal the wounds, and that player is….
*Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang*
The Borussia Dortmund striker is heavily linked as a replacement for Sanchez and talks are already ongoing between the clubs for a deal that will bring The Gabonese to Arsenal.
All right, back to the game!
Arsene Wenger will be without Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck, Henkrikh Mkhtaryan is unavailable due to the Carabao Cup rules, while Nacho Monreal will be back in the squad after a speedy recovery from his shoulder injury and Aaron Ramsey has a late fitness test.
Chelsea
The Blues might face the destiny as Arsenal with papers reporting Eden Hazard stalling over his new deal and might leave Chelsea at the end of this season. But these are only speculations and are not important at the moment.
Hazard is by far the best player in Antonio’s Conte side and one who loves to play against Arsenal.
Conte was happy to see his star scoring twice against Brighton at the weekend.
Unlike Wenger, the Italian has a full squad to pick from as goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Gary Cahill provided him with a significant boost after recovering time from injuries.
Pedro and Alvaro Morata will also be available for selection after serving their respective bans from red cards.
The match
We expect a thriller match with many goals, similar the 3:3 draw, last time these two met at The Emirates.
With The Gunners eager to prove they can do it without Alexis Sanchez, we’ll surprisingly go for an Arsenal victory by one or two goals margin.
Arsenal to win 8/5
Draw 12/5
Chelsea to win 6/4
