The first leg of League Cup semi-final stage will see two English powerhouses clash on Wednesday night. Arsenal are travelling to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea after a harrowing 4-2 loss to Nottingham Forest in their FA Cup third round tie. Arsene Wenger fielded a second-tier squad and eventually had to pay the price by bowing out of a possible silverware.
Chelsea faced their own struggles against Norwich City and failed to break the deadlock extending the tie to another leg. However, they are favourably stacked for the next fixture at home and is expected to topple the Canaries to progress to the next round.
Arsenal hosted Chelsea for the Premier League fixture just over a week ago and the match ended 2-2. The fans at Emirates were on the edge of their seats throughout the 90 minutes as both sides showed up to get one over the other. We can expect a similar display in this fixture with both managers fielding their strongest sides after a well-deserved rest period.
Arsene Wenger might just have selected a weaker side in anticipation of this very fixture. Nothing less than a win will suffice for him after the horrific loss he just encountered. The Frenchman is expected to field his men in the 3-4-3 formation.
Defense
Even though Petr Cech is the first choice to appear in the Premier League and European competitions, David Ospina is the “Cup keeper” and might just get the nod ahead of the 33-year-old in between the sticks.
Calum Chambers’ poor defensive showing in the last fixture between the two might see him dropped for this matchup. Per Mertesacker, Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding are predicted to start in the defensive back three.
Midfield
Hector Bellerin should find himself get featured in the right wing back position with Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the left.
Jack Wilshere is expected to return along with Granit Xhaka in the holding midfield roles. Wilshere redemption in an Arsenal jersey was beckoning and his remarkable effort past Thibaut Courtois finally ended his long goal scoring drought. The duo worked perfectly in unison in the last fixture and was well matched against the likes of Cesc Fabregas and N’Golo Kante.
Attack
Olivier Giroud has been ruled out for this match and Danny Welbeck was very poor against Forest on Sunday. Alexandre’s goalless run has stretched to 6 games now and is expected to end it by appearing in the lone striker role.
He might get flanked by Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, with the German drifting in more centrally to link up the attacks.
