Preview: League Cup Semi-Final 2nd Legs
Both Arsenal and Man City won their away legs in the League Cup semi-finals, and are looking to secure their spot in the final in the return legs at home, with Arsenal hosting Chelsea tonight and Man City welcoming Newcastle tomorrow. Let’s take a closer look at the two semi-final return fixtures!
Chelsea and Newcastle are both hoping for an upset this week, with the Londoners at 6.50 to qualify for the final and Newcastle at 13.00. In other words, the visitors in this week’s matches will need to come up with something special in order to turn things around from the 1st leg, in which Chelsea lost 2-3 at home to league leaders Arsenal and Newcastle fell to a 0-2 defeat against Man City.
Let’s take a look at both of this week’s upcoming return legs, starting with tonight’s London derby at the Emirates!
Arsenal – Chelsea
Emirates Stadium, Tuesday @ 21:00 CET
Ben White, Gyökeres and Martinelli scored the goals for Arsenal in their impressive 3-2 win away at Chelsea in the 1st leg, with Garnacho scoring a brace for the hosts. Arteta will be more than happy to sit back and defend their lead in this match, but they’re facing a Chelsea team in form after the arrival of their new manager Liam Rosenior and will have to be careful not to get complacent.
Saka is still doubtful for this one, with the Arsenal fans hoping to at least see him back on the pitch again this weekend against Sunderland. The reports are at least saying the injury isn’t too serious, which is good news for Arteta and Arsenal ahead of the decisive months ahead. Merino is out with an injury for the season, needing a surgery, with the Spaniard hoping to be back for this summer’s big tournament. Otherwise, the Arsenal squad is looking fairly healthy.
The Gunners dropped a few points in the league after their 1st leg win over Chelsea, namely a 0-0 draw against Nottingham Forest and a 2-3 loss at home to Man Utd. Their 3-1 win away at Inter between those two matches and their 4-0 thumping of Leeds last weekend will however have settled the nerves of the Arsenal hopefuls. Despite having another important league match coming up this weekend against Sunderland, it’s unlikely that Arteta will be resting too many players for this one, so we should see a strong line-up here. Kepa might start in goal, though, ready to face his former club. Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Hincapie is a formidable defensive line-up, with Zubimendi and Rice likely to accompany the Arsenal captain in the middle of the park, and Madueke and Martinelli supporting Gyökeres from the wings, unless Gabriel Jesus gets the nod ahead of the Swedish striker.
Arsenal to win the 1st half is at 2.22, with Gyökeres at 5.00 to score the first goal of the match.
Looking at Chelsea, they’ve had an interesting season of ups and downs, but mostly the former. They’re currently 5th in the league, one point behind Man Utd, and their entertaining 3-2 win away at Napoli in the CL secured them 6th place in the League Phase and direct qualification to the Round of 16, knocking their former manager Conte’s team out in the process.
Since Rosenior took over the team, they’ve won 6 out of 7 matches, with the only defeat coming in the 1st leg of this fixture. In other words, this is a team that will certainly not have given up ahead of a tough away fixture, and despite the odds being against them, Rosenior will be hoping for another famous win like the one in Naples. It is worth noting that Chelsea came from behind both against Napoli and in their last match, a 3-2 win at home against London rivals West Ham.
Estevao, Adarabioyo and Gittens are doubts ahead of this one, but otherwise the squad is looking fairly healthy, at least the part of the squad that is likely to start this fixture.
Chelsea to win the 1st half is at 4.70, with Palmer, Pedro and Delap all at 9.50 to score the first goal of the match.
Man City – Newcastle
Etihad, Wednesday @ 21:00 CET
Man City won 2-0 in Newcastle in the 1st leg, and are clear favourites to go through to the final, with the odds of Newcastle qualifying for the final at 13.00.
Pep’s Man City secured a top 8 finish in the CL last week with a 2-0 win against Galatasaray, ensuring a direct route to the Round of 16, but they wasted a 2-0 lead against Spurs with weekend in a match ending in a 2-2 draw, which was a huge disappointment. It’s been a weak season for Man City for the standards. They are 6 points behind Arsenal in the league with 14 matches left, and they’d love to book a final against the Gunners in the League Cup, provided Arteta’s men get the job done today. Man City have won 14 of their 18 home matches this season, only falling to two defeats, and they’ll be looking to improve on that tomorrow evening.
Dias is back in training for the Citizens, but unlikely to feature in this one, and Doku, Gvardiol, Stones, Savinho and Kovacic are also on the injury list. James Trafford is likely to get a chance between the goal posts, but otherwise Pep is likely to put out more or less his strongest available eleven here.
Man City to win the 1st half is at 2.38, with Semenyo at 6.50 to score the first goal of the match.
Moving onto Newcastle, they’ve had an even tougher season than Man City, currently in the lower half of the PL standings (11th). They managed a 12th position in the CL League Phase and are favourites against Qarabag in the knockout phase playoffs this month. Having lost 0-2 in the home leg against Man City, there will be few Newcastle supporters coming into this fixture with any form of optimism, but there is still 90 minutes to play (at least), so Eddie Howe will have to rally the troops and hope for a miracle, or a Man City collapse.
Unfortunately for Howe, Bruno Guimaraes, Miley and Botman are all doubtful for this match, with Joelinton, Livramento, Schar and Krafth are all out. Woltemade is hoping to get the nod from start again in this match, after having started on the bench in their heavy 1-4 loss against Liverpool in the weekend.
Newcastle are not in great form at the moment, despite a strong 1-1 result away at PSG recently. Their last 5 matches have only resulted in one win, a 3-0 thumping of PSV.
Newcastle to win the 1st half is at 4.15, with Woltemade at 7.50 to score the first goal of the match.
Last Updated: 03.02.2026
