Chelsea face Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in the EFL Cup semi final in just over an hour, and the teams are in!
Here are the full team line-ups for Chelsea vs Arsenal (kick off at 20:00 GMT)
CHELSEA:
Chelsea's team to face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup.
Chelsea’s team to face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup.
A manager’s first team is always fascinating, and while this is technically Liam Rosenior’s second lineup as Chelsea boss, the first one had heavy rotation and didn’t really count.
The headline news is that NONE of the three players who were a doubt make it: Reece James, Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto all miss out on the squad entirely. That, combined with the absence of Moises Caicedo with a suspension, is a huge blow to our chances tonight.
But how Rosenior has responded to that is interesting. Robert Sanchez is in goal, and it’s three of the back four who became Enzo Maresca’s favourites: Marc Cucurella on the left, Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah in the middle. Josh Acheampong fills in for Gusto and James on the right.
In midfield, Andrey Santos and Enzo Fernandez play centrally, a duo that may lack defensive nous. Joao Pedro gets his preferred number ten role back. Out wide Pedro Neto and Estevao start. Liam Delap was expected to lead the line, but he’s out of the squad entirely, presumably ill or injured. So Marc Guiu gets a very surprising turn up top after his goal at the weekend.
In other news…
In the build up to tonight’s game we had our doubts about whether Estevao would start against the Gunners, well, now we have our answer…
Chelsea come into tonight’s game with a lot of pressure on them. They’re still in 4 cup competitions, but won’t be much longer if they get a bad result tonight. Winger Pedro Neto has said they have to believe that they can win these things – nobody else is going to dream for them.
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Liam Rosenior at Craven Cottage.
Cole Palmer in action against Newcastle.