Rosenior faces ultimate Carabao Cup test against Arsenal

Liam Rosenior takes charge of his first home game with Chelsea as Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinal clash on Wednesday night.

The Blues defeated Cardiff City 3-1 in the quarterfinals, while the Gunners edged past Crystal Palace after a penalty shoot-out.

Match preview

This is the third time Chelsea and Arsenal have met in the EFL Cup semi-finals – the fourth fixture to have been played that many times at this stage of the competition. Arsenal vs Tottenham, Chelsea vs Tottenham, and Manchester City vs Manchester United have been played four times.

Chelsea overturned a 2-1 first-leg deficit against the Gunners to reach the final, which they won in 1997/98 with a 4-3 aggregate success. Arsenal reached Wembley in 2017/18 with a 2-1 second-leg win, only to be defeated by Man City in the showpiece.

In total, the teams have met six times in the EFL Cup. Chelsea have won/progressed from four of their six ties with Arsenal, with the exceptions being their first (1976/77 fourth round) and most recent (2017/18 semi-final) meetings.

They have already met in the Premier League this season, which ended in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in November. Caicedo was sent off in the first half, but Chelsea still took the lead through Trevoh Chalobah early in the second half. Mikel Merino equalised for Arsenal soon after.

Arsenal have been eliminated from their last four semi-final ties in all competitions, the longest run in their history.

Mikel Merino has scored in his last two games against Chelsea, both in the Premier League last year. The last Arsenal player to score in three in a row against the Blues was Ian Wright between 1992 and 1994 (4).

Team news

Chelsea

Moises Caicedo is suspended after collecting his second yellow card of the tournament against Cardiff.

While Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill are unavailable due to injuries.

Arsenal

Kai Havertz made his long-awaited return from a knee injury as a substitute on Sunday, and he’s available to face his former employers.

Piero Hincapie, Cristhian Mosquera, Riccardo Calafiori and Max Dowman are sidelined with injuries.

Predicted line-ups

Chelsea: Filip Jorgensen, Malo Gusto, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Reece James, Enzo Fernandez, Estevao, Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Liam Delap.

Arsenal: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Jurriën Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Miles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Odegaard, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyokeres.