Tottenham v CHELSEA: EFL Cup Semi-final (1st leg) Preview

Date: Tuesday 8^th January 2019

Venue: Wembley Stadium

Kick-off: 20:00 GMT

After getting ourselves through to the 4^th round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win against Forest at the weekend, tonight we’re back in cup action. This time it’s the Carabao cup and a trip to Wembley to face Spurs in the first leg of the semi-final.

Pochettino has already enjoyed back to back 3-1 wins against us and their last trip out saw Spurs cruise to a 7-0 win away in the FA Cup and whilst it might have been against Tranmere, we could have done without them getting in that sort of shooting practice before tonight.

After 2 defeats against them on the bounce, Sarri has called for us to be more aggressive at Wembley tonight although given our lacklustre performances of late, I don’t see Pochettino sending them out in full riot gear to greet us.

MANAGER’S VIEWS

Going into tonight’s game, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says “We’ve started the new year very well, with victories at Cardiff and Tranmere. We know very well that it’s going to be again 180 minutes, two legs. Chelsea are a great team, a team that will be tough to beat. The tie is 50-50. It will be a very exciting game. We hope to have the possibility to win and go to Stamford Bridge in a very good position.”

Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri meanwhile, says “We need to approach this match in another way, because we lost the [last] match in the first 16 minutes. They were really more aggressive than us, more determined than us. Now we know very well if we approach the same there’s no solution for us. I want to speak before about this, otherwise it’s useless to speak about tactics.”

SQUAD NEWS

For Tottenham, Lucas Moura, Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama all miss out.

For Chelsea, Pedro, Olivier Giroud and Willian are all expected to return from injury. Mateo Kovacic may also be available although Ruben Loftus-Cheek is out with a back injury.

TEAMS

TOTTENHAM (Possible line-up): Lloris; Trippier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies; Sissoko, Winks; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane

CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho, Barkley; Hudson-Odoi, Morata, Hazard

LAST MEETING

Tottenham 3-1 Chelsea (24^th November 2018)

CURRENT FORM (ALL)

TOTTENHAM: WWWLWW

CHELSEA: WLWWDW

OTHER STUFF

• This is the ninth League Cup match between the sides, Spurs have won two, Chelsea have won four with two draws.
• Spurs have won their last two matches against Chelsea
• Spurs are competing in their 15th League Cup semi-final
• Chelsea have made the League Cup final on four of the previous five occasions they’ve played the first leg away from home

PREDICTION

Sportsmole: Tottenham 3-1 Chelsea