Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-2 in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final last night.
After a fiery encounter in late November, the Gunners set off across the capital to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the semi-final of the Carabao cup. It didn’t take long before the Premier League leaders picked up where they left off, with Ben White capitalising on a Sanchez error from a Declan Rice corner to make it 1-0 in the 6th minute.
In the first leg of the Newcastle United vs Manchester City, Antoine Semenyo’s second goal was controversially disallowed due to interference from Erling Haaland, who was judged to be in an offside position. That check took more than five minutes – but after a similar incident with Viktor Gyokeres for the White’s goal, there was no such long check. Fans online and at the bridge were questioning why the VAR check wasn’t longer, with Gyokeres being in an offside position, and interfering with play when the ball went into the net. This potentially highlights how inconsistent VAR has been this season.
After the early goal in the first half, the remaining minutes of the opening 45 were a lot quieter. There were a few nice runs down Chelsea’s right hand side from Estevao, who was later booked for dissent following a cynical challenge from Leandro Trossard, who was also booked. Estevao was involved again later with a shot from the top of the right side of the box, forcing a good save out of former Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga at his near post.
Early in the second half Arsenal doubled their lead, with Gyokeres making it two in the 49th minute after a low driven cross from Ben White slipped through Sanchez’s gloves, leaving the Swedish international with an open goal.
Arsenal kept their foot on the gas after their second with Odegaard stinging the gloves of Robert Sanchez from range.
Alejandro Garnacho gets one back for the blues after turning home Neto clipped a ball to the back post, firing through the legs of Kepa Arrizabalaga in the 57th minute, just four minutes after he was subbed on by Liam Rosenior.
On the 70th minute mark, Martin Zubimendi restored Arsenal’s two goal lead after some lovely footwork on the edge of the box, before bending it past Sanchez into the back of the net.
Garnacho got his second after a Neto corner was cleared to him, cutting the deficit to one in the 83rd minute, striking the ball into the ground and bouncing it past Saliba and Gabriel to bring Chelsea back into the tie.
A late Pedro Neto header was comfortably denied by Kepa as Arsenal take a goal lead back to the Emirates for the second leg in 3 weeks time.
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