Chelsea 2 - 3 Arsenal (1st leg): Arsenal in the driving seat despite Chelsea fightback through Alejandro Garnacho brace

It's advantage Arsenal in the second Carabao Cup semi-final, thanks to goals from Ben White, Viktor Gyökeres and Martin Zubimendi, however two Alejandro Garnacho goals means that Chelsea are still in the game ahead of the second leg at the Emirates.

Both sides come into this off of dominant FA Cup displays, with Chelsea getting the Rosenior era started with a 5-1 win at Charlton, and Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli getting a hat trick as the Gunners beat Pompey 4-1.

Chelsea come into this game with many first team players out, those being Liam Delap, Moises Caicedo, Reece James, Malo Gusto and Cole Palmer. Marc Cucurella is available for Chelsea after serving his one game suspension for denying a goal scoring opportunity against Fulham.

With all the absences for the Blues, the Arsenal squad unsurprisingly looked stronger, going for mostly their first choice XI, with Ben White and familiar face Kepa Arrizabalaga being the two notable changes.

Arsenal would get their lead fairly quickly through Ben White, who's last goals were against Chelsea in the 5-0 win at the Emirates in April 2024, after getting his head to a Declan Rice corner kick. There was a VAR check about whether Viktor Gyökeres had interfered with play after him Marc Guiu had a hold of each other on the goal line, but it was quickly waved away.

For Chelsea fans, this risked becoming a long night for Liam Rosenior's side, however they would get into the game a bit, starting with Enzo Fernandez being left completely open in midfield and letting a shot away, which was saved by Kepa.

Gyökeres has been criticised a fair amount this season, and he had the chance to change that, but his shot went wide.

Chelsea were getting a fair few chances, and a well worked move almost got the team level, however Joao Pedro's shot bobbled through the six-yard box with no one to tap it home.

Estevao then had another chance minutes later, cutting inside and hitting a shot with plenty of venom straight at Kepa. Despite having the better line up, the Gunners weren't having everything their own way.

One of Arsenal's closest chances of the game came to centre back William Saliba, who's shot curled and had Robert Sanchez worried, however the shot just went over the bar.

Arsenal started the second half like they started the first, and another early goal came from it, as a White cross squirmed under Robert Sanchez's hands and into the path of Gyökeres who couldn't miss.

A retrievable result for Chelsea was now looking like a mountain to climb for the Blues, with the worry it could potentially get worse with the Gunners in the ascendancy.

Then, a lifeline for Chelsea, as Alejandro Garnacho got on the end of Pedro Neto's cross and hit a low drive home to cut the lead back down to one.

This was followed swiftly by an Estevao curler which had Gabriel worried, but the corner didn't surmount to anything.

Declan Rice had a shooting opportunity from a free kick, and people's minds would go back to those against Real Madrid, but his effort wasn't one of his best, sailing over the bar and not troubling Sanchez at all.

Arsenal would get their two goal lead back however, as Martin Zubimendi was given the ball from Gyökeres, and the midfielder was patient to wait for an opening before curling it in at the near post.

The Arsenal chances were coming thick and fast at this point, and it took Sanchez's toes to keep a Merino volley out.

Chelsea then got another lifeline, and it was Garnacho again, hitting a volley after the ball came out from a corner, which bounced in whilst Kepa was on the floor, of which a VAR check deemed not to be a foul.

Arsenal then thought they had a stonewall pen after a foul from Jorrel Hato, but an offside flag made sure the gap between the sides would only be one going into the second leg at the Emirates.

It's back to the Premier League for both sides in their next fixtures, with Arsenal having an away afternoon encounter with Nottingham Forest and Chelsea having a 3 o'clock kickoff against Brentford.