Chelsea welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Stamford Bridge looking to overturn a 1-0 deflict from the first leg of their Carabao Cup Semi-final.
The winner of this tie will meet Manchester City at Wembley next month after the Citizens saw off Burton Albion in the other semi.
Team news
Chelsea will be without new loan signing, Gonzalo Higuaín after the Argentina international failed to join before Wednesday’s midday deadline.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (back) and Marco van Ginkel (knee) both remain absent for Maurizio Sarri’s Blues.
Tottenham have Lucas Moura, Moussa Sissoko and Victor Wanyama all back in training after lengthy spells on sidelines through injury.
Harry Kane (ankle) and Dele Alli (hamstring) are both ruled out until March whilst Son Heung-min is away on international duty for South Korea.
Stats
- Tottenham are unbeaten in last three games against Chelsea in all competitions.
- Two of last three meetings have been won by a 3-1 result.
- Chelsea have progressed from two of three previous two legged Semi-Final meetings in this competition, although their aggregate wins both came last century in 1971-72 and 1990-91 tournaments.
- The last time Spurs won four consecutive matches against Chelsea came in 1961, when they were unable to participate in the League Cup.
- Tottenham have scored at least twice in each of their last three second leg appearances at this stage of the League Cup, despite experiencing contrasting results (W1, D1, L1) although they progressed to Final on all three occasions.
- Chelsea have scored once in each of their last two appearances at this stage of League Cup, only progressing on one of those occasions.
Prediction
This is going to be a tough game because both teams have goal scoring issues up front for different reasons.
Chelsea however need to score first here if are to realistically take this to extra time at least but aren’t as defensively solid in recent weeks as they were throughout December.
For that reason, my gut instinct says that this will be a score draw with Spurs winning the tie overall.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Result: Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Tie level 2-2 on aggregate. Chelsea win 4-2 on penalties)