London
rivals Tottenham and Chelsea meet in a blockbuster Carabao Cup semi-final
first leg at Wembley on Tuesday.
Mauricio Pochettino and Maurizio Sarri are both attempting to win the first
major trophy of their managerial careers - they are the only current
managers of top six teams yet to win any major honours.
Sarri's first two losses as Chelsea boss came at Wembley, in August's
Community Shield and, after an 18-match unbeaten run, against Spurs on
November 24.
In that game, Spurs scored twice in the opening 16 minutes and Sarri
afterwards bemoaned his side's attitude.
He said on Monday that his team must match Spurs' desire before tactics can
be taken into account.
He added: "We need to approach the match in another way, because we lost the
match in the first 15 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."
Meanwhile, over the last 10 years since Jan 2009, Tottenham have played in
six major semi-finals, but lost all four against teams from the same
division. They have only beaten League One Sheffield Utd and then
Championship club Burnley in that period.
Team news
Lucas Moura will be missing for Tottenham after picking up a knee injury in
the 7-0 FA Cup win at Tranmere on Friday.
Erik Lamela has recovered from illness, but Eric Dier (appendicitis) and
Victor Wanyama (knee) are still out along with Mousa Dembele (ankle) and Jan
Vertonghen (groin).
Paulo Gazzaniga has played all of Spurs' domestic cup ties so far this
season and is set to remain in goal.
Pedro, Willian (hamstring) and Olivier Giroud (ankle) could return from
injury for Chelsea.
Mateo Kovacic may return after illness forced him to sit out Saturday's FA
Cup win over Nottingham Forest but Ruben Loftus-Cheek (back) is out and Cesc
Fabregas is closing on a move to Monaco.
Opta stats
This is the ninth League Cup match between these sides, and the first since
the 2015 final - of the previous eight meetings, Spurs have won two, Chelsea
have won four with two draws.
Spurs and Chelsea are set to meet in a League Cup semi-final for the third
time, having also done so in 1971-72 and 2001-02 - the only fixture to be
played more often at this stage is Arsenal against Spurs (four occasions).
Tottenham have won their last two matches against Chelsea, both in the
Premier League - they haven't won three in a row against their London rivals
in all competitions since a run of five between March 1961 and September
1963.
Chelsea have qualified for the League Cup final on four of the previous five
occasions they've played the first leg away from home, despite winning just
one of those games (D2 L2).
Spurs are competing in their 15th League Cup semi-final - only Liverpool
(17) have appeared at this stage more often in the competition's history.
Chelsea - who've already lost to Spurs at Wembley in the Premier League this
season - could become just the second team to lose twice against the same
opponent at Wembley in a single season, after Sheffield Wednesday against
Arsenal in 1992-93, who lost the League Cup final and an FA Cup final replay
to the Gunners.
Dele Alli has scored more goals against Chelsea (6) than he has against any
other opponent in all competitions during his career, as well as netting
four goals in his last five League Cup appearances for Spurs.
Eden Hazard has scored in his last three League Cup appearances - the last
player to score in four consecutive appearances in the competition was
Dwight Gayle in September 2015 for Crystal Palace.
Charlie's prediction
I think both will go after the game and field full-strength sides.
Pochettino has never won a trophy so it's massive for Spurs, far more
important than it is for Chelsea. While it's hard sometimes to work out what
Sarri will do, I think Eden Hazard will play. Getting close to him is
halfway to stopping Chelsea, though I don't think they're in great shape at
the moment. It'll be a physical match-up and it could be quite a bitty game
but with Heung-Min Son, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane,
Tottenham will score and I'm backing them to edge this first leg.
CHARLIE PREDICTS: Spurs 2-1 Chelsea (8/1 with Sky Bet)
top