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As it happenedended1516832476

Arsenal vs Chelsea: EFL Cup semi-final second-leg live!

Follow all of the live action from The Emirates Stadium, as Arsenal and Chelsea attempt to book their spot at next month's Wembley final 

Liam Corless
Wednesday 24 January 2018 21:50 GMT
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Laurent Koscielny steps in to stop Eden Hazard
Laurent Koscielny steps in to stop Eden Hazard (Getty Images)

Arsenal host Chelsea in the second-leg of their EFL Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, with both sides hoping to book their spot in February’s Wembley final against Premier League leaders Manchester City.

New signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not make his Arsenal debut as the Armenian forward is cup-tied having played in the competition for previous club Manchester United. But in better news for the Gunners, Aaron Ramsey and Nacho Monreal could feature after bouncing back from sickness and a leg injury respectively.

Chelsea will be without a number of first-team regulars: Cesc Fabregas (hamstring), Alvaro Morata (back) and Andreas Christensen (head) are all set to miss out.

The tie is finely poised after the sides drew 0-0 in a scrappy goalless draw at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago. You can follow all of tonight’s live action below.

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load.

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Tiemoue Bakayoko and Jack Wilshere battle for the ball 

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:38
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82' - Davide Zappacosta's looped cross finds Marcos Alonso at the far post but the Spaniard's first-time volley is blocked by Hector Bellerin. 

Chelsea are starting to crank up the pressure.

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:41
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84' - Aaron Ramsey and Sead Kolasinac replace Alexandre Lacazette and Alex Iwobi for Arsenal.

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:43
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88' - Marcos Alonso takes aim with a free-kick from distance but the Spaniard's effort sails well over David Ospina's crossbar.

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:48
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90' - We'll have a minimum of four additional minutes at the end of this one.

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:50
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Ross Barkley goes to ground after a challenge by Jack Wilshere 

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:51
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Full-time - Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (Agg: 2-1)

Michael Oliver blows the final whistle and Arsenal have come from behind to win here! They will face Manchester City in next month's Wembley final!

Liam Corless24 January 2018 21:54
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Liam Corless24 January 2018 22:02
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Post-match reaction from Arsenal's players

Jack Wilshere: "We knew we had to improve in the second half. We got our formation a bit wrong in the first 20 minutes. They took advantage of that but we came back into it, showed good character and I thought we were the better team in the second half.

"We felt like we could create chances at any time and we showed our quality going forward."

Granit Xhaka: "We didn't play well in the first half. You can see in the second half we were the better team after we changed our system

"I'm happy to help the team and we are happy to go to Wembley now. If you play a final you want to win the trophy. We go into the game against City to win."

Quotes from Sky Sports

Liam Corless24 January 2018 22:07
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Post-match reaction from Arsene Wenger

His view of the match: "In the first half we gave them too much respect. We were a bit scared to go for it. Football doesn't like that and we suffered because of that. We rectified that in the second half and took control of the game.

"In the first half we watched them play. Second half we were tighter, didn't give them much room. We started to dominate."

On the effect of losing Alexis Sanchez: "We lost a great player but it is true that when the dressing room doesn't know what is going on, there is less focus on the important things. Now we know that we have to deal with that we can just get on with it."

On whether there is any news on Arsenal's pursuit of Aubameyang: "No, no news on that. Let's play with the players we have."

Quotes from Sky Sports

Arsenal are into the Carabao Cup final 

Liam Corless24 January 2018 22:21

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