On Wednesday evening Arsenal and Chelsea will meet in a competitive game for the third time in the space of three weeks as they meet in the Carabao Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg at The Emirates. The game kicks off at 20:00 hours and is live on both Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event. Will new Arsenal signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan be playing though? Well, I’m afraid not, he’s cup tied after playing for Manchester United in the previous rounds of the competition.
Arsenal’s next fixture after tonight is away to Swansea City in the Premier League next Tuesday, Mkhitaryan is currently fit so unless he picks any sort of knock they he should make his Gunners debut in that game. Obviously Alexis Sanchez is no longer available after he was involved in a swap deal to Manchester United with Mkhitaryan coming in the opposite direction.
Can Arsenal and Chelsea finally be separated tomorrow evening then? This might be the third match in three weeks but ignoring pre-season this will be the fourth competitive game between the two this season. Just like two weeks ago in the 1st Leg, back in September in the league Arsenal also came away from Stamford Bridge with a hard-earned 0-0 draw. We did however get goals when these two met in the at The Emirates on 3rd January in an absolutely cracking game that finished 2-2.
Jack Wilshere gave Arsenal the lead when he smashed the ball home with his left foot from eight yards for his first Premier League goals since May 2015. Arsenal’s lead was cancelled out just four minutes later though when Eden Hazard converted from the spot after he himself had been kicked and brought down in the box by Bellerin. More chances came and went and there must have been around thirty odd chances in total but Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois made some outstanding saves to keep the score down.
With just five minutes to go Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso tapped in from close range after some brilliant work from substitute Davide Zappacosta down the right-hand side to give Chelsea the lead. That was not the end of it though and in the ninety second minute the ball found its way to Bellerin who whipped the ball into the far corner to level things up. Even after that though Morata could and probably should have won it for Chelsea. They didn’t but as a neutral watching it, it was absolutely brilliant with end to end football.
If we were to get anything like that tomorrow night then I’ll be pleased. Could these two of them be separated then? Well, neither team are in great form despite both winning and scoring four goals each last weekend. If it was to finish level but as a score draw after extra-time then Chelsea would go through on the away goals rule.
Prediction time: Arsenal 2 v Chelsea 1. After extra-time.
