For the first time in six years, Arsenal are in a major final. It's a remarkable stat when you consider the progress the Gunners have made in recent years under Mikel Arteta.
However, with priority set upon finally ending their two-decade wait for a Premier League title, you can perhaps forgive them for having been a tad distracted in recent years.
Yet, there are no distractions in 2025/26. Arteta's side clearly mean business, and there is a very realistic chance they walk away with several honours come the end of the season.
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After defeating Chelsea 4-2 on aggregate, they have ended a torrid run of semi-final defeats and it means they are still fighting on all four fronts. Top of the Premier League, top of the Champions League and into the Carabao Cup final, life doesn't get much better right now for those at the Emirates Stadium.
How Arsenal downed Chelsea on Tuesday night
Whilst Arsenal’s 3-2 win in the first leg of this semi-final tie was incredibly entertaining, this was anything but.
Fortunately, the hosts didn’t it to be full of goals. A boring night was just how they envisaged proceedings. Liam Rosenior's tactics were certainly interesting. He aimed to take the game as deep as possible, and indeed his side managed to do that. The trouble was that they never really gave it a go and struggled to create many goal-scoring opportunities.
Liam Delap was playing as a makeshift right winger but was locked down by Piero Hincapie, while Joao Pedro, who was leading the line for the Blues, only managed four touches in the opposition penalty box, marshalled well by the Arsenal defence all night long.
It was Kai Havertz in the end who stole the show. Typically, Viktor Gyokeres didn’t really have his finest night in an Arsenal shirt and was again rather anonymous. However, Havertz emerged just after the hour mark to replace the Swede and made a game-changing impact.
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The number 29 has been through injury hell over the last year and started his first Premier League game of the campaign against Leeds United last weekend. That came off the back of scoring and assisting against Kairat Almaty in the Champions League a week ago, but his finest moment since returning from injury was reserved for his former employers on Tuesday night.
Havertz didn’t have an awful lot to do when he came on, but his most telling contribution came with one of the last kicks of the game.
Chelsea flooded players forward, and in a counter-attacking situation, Declan Rice got down the left-hand side and swung a ball past the last line of the Chelsea defence into the path of Havertz. He took a lovely touch, and with Gabriel Martinelli sprinting up alongside him, had the opportunity to play in the Brazilian but ignored him.
Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea net was perhaps expecting a pass, but was caught out by the German, who danced around the Spanish 'keeper and then fired the ball into an empty net. His celebration was telling, as was the reaction from the Emirates crowd - it was bedlam.
Havertz pointed to the Arsenal crest. He bellowed and roared, and was quickly swamped by his teammates. Arsenal were in the final, their first final in six years, their first final since COVID, only their second final of the Arteta reign. They will surely head to Wembley at the end of March as favourites, irrespective of whether they face Manchester City or Newcastle United.
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For Arsenal, they have just over a month to wait for that showpiece event, but for Havertz, he surely will not have long to wait for a starting place in the team. If his performance against Leeds was a little less impressive, he’s shown against Kairat and against Chelsea a week apart just why he’s such a valued member of this Arsenal team.
He must start at the weekend, as must all of the backline that featured against Chelsea. It’s safe to say they were brilliant.
Arsenal's defence rise to the occasion against Chelsea
There were a number of key performers for Arsenal, but it was undoubtedly the defensive display that caught the eye the most, as the Gunners kept their 20th clean sheet in 38 matches this season.
Their shutout against Rosenior's men in midweek was largely thanks to the performance of William Saliba and Gabriel, who once again demonstrated why they are two of the very best defenders in Europe this season.
Gabriel, who was the stand-in captain for the absent Martin Odegaard, was simply superb and demonstrated why he was given the armband by Arteta. Between them, Saliba and Gabriel won 12 out of the 19 duels they contested, while Gabriel completed 95% of his passes and Saliba completed 92%.
That being said, as good as they were, Hincapie, the summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, was undoubtedly the best defender of the lot and perhaps Arsenal’s man of the match.
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Hincapie has had a bit of a rocky start to life at Arsenal. He signed late in the window, arriving as Andrea Berta’s final move of the summer and has either filled in as a centre-back or a left-back.
He was particularly key during Arsenal’s injury crisis, where the defender became a vital member of the team, playing in the middle of defence while Gabriel was missing for a couple of months.
There were a few moments where he looked a little shaky and a little nervy, but he finally appears to be coming into his own now, and his performance at left-back against Chelsea, where he deputised for Riccardo Calafiori, was first-class.
It appears as though Myles Lewis-Skelly isn’t being favoured anymore, which has allowed Hincapie to grow into that left-back role and this week he more than demonstrated why he’s rated so highly.
Hincapie vs Chelsea
Minutes played
Touches
Accurate passes
Successful dribbles
Key passes
Shots
Defensive contributions
Tackles won
Clearances
Recoveries
Ground duels won
Aerial duels won
Arsenal have a £45m clause they can sign the player for at the end of his loan, and the jury was perhaps out on whether he'd be worth it. However, his performance against Chelsea showed precisely why they’d be wise to cough up the money.
The Ecuadorian was near faultless from a defensive point of view, winning eight of his ten duels and also making three recoveries. He also amassed four clearances and made three tackles as Arsenal battled to keep the clean sheet that would ensure they reached the Carabao Cup final.
Hincapie-Arsenal-Gabriel
Once all was said and done, that’s exactly what they had achieved and in part, they have Hincapie to thank for that. He nearly scored a screamer from just outside the box for good measure too.
Truthfully, his performances are not always convincing but this was surely his finest night in an Arsenal shirt yet. The fact that it came in such an important game says it all about his elite mentality.
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