Arsenal beats Chelsea to qualify for finals of Carabao Cup
By Tanko Bauka
Arsenal are in the finals of the Carabao Cup and awaits the outcome of the second leg match between Manchester City and Newcastle United to determine who their opponents will be in the final, scheduled for 22 March 2026 at Wembley Stadium.
To reach the final, Arsenal inflicted a painful 1-0 defeat on their London rival Chelsea, following a 3-2 win in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s home ground, a fortnight ago.
Chelsea came into the second leg looking to overturn the one-goal deficit and probably see off the match and the head coach, Liam Rosenior made some tactical changes, switching to a back three, the formation used by Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino which gave the Blues their first Champions League trophy.
Chelsea deployed the formation to frustrate Arsenal especially stopping them from playing their usual free-flow football and they almost succeeded, defending in numbers not allowing any space for the Mikel Arteta Boys to penetrate but fortunately for them they hardly created any clear chance as Arsenal marshalled their backline in a block.
The first half ended goalless and very cagey as neither Chelsea nor Arsenal could create any clear chance and the Blues Boss Liam Rosenior brought on two attackers, Estavao and Cole Palmer in an attempt to spark his team into life thereby changing the dynamism of the game and maybe swing the match in favour of his team and Mikel Arteta responded too by bringing in Lisandro Trossard and Katz Havertz.
Substitute Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the match deep into injury time where he rounded the goalkeeper Robert Sanchez before slotting in at the far corner to send the Gunners to Wembley.
Arsenal now await the winner of the Manchester City and Newcastle United second leg encounter at Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City hold 2-0 advantage in the first leg played a fortnight ago at Saint James’ Park.
Arsenal had been knocked out at this stage of the competition on four occasions and have finally overcome the jinx and can start to dream of picking yet another trophy under Mikel Arteta having won only the FA Cup in his many years as Arsenal head coach.
The Gunners are competing in all four trophies and are very much in it, for they are the only team to have won all their matches in the UEFA Champions League and are topping the English Barclays Premier League table and have qualified for the third round of the FA Cup and are now in the final of the Carabao Cup.
Chelsea on the other hand are now out of the Carabao Cup but are very much in the Champions League, the FA Cup third round and are fighting for a top-four finish in the English Barclays Premier League.
Liam Rosenior since his appointment has improved Chelsea significantly bringing stability, discipline and confidence which before now is lacking.
Chelsea are very difficult team to break down but going forward they must work on creating chances and not only creating chances but also taking them.
Arsenal awaits the winner of today’s encounter between Manchester City and Newcastle United as they go again in the second leg at Etihad Stadium.
