“An expensive mistake”, “Bench him”: Chelsea fans target midfield star after poor display in EFL Cup defeat to Tottenham + Match report

Spurs take EFL Cup semifinal first leg by beating Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley

Spurs were at home for what was the first leg of the EFL cup semi-final which saw Gazzaniga starting in goal behind Davinson Sanchez and Toby Alderweireld in central defence. Harry Winks played in the middle of the park with talisman Harry Kane up front.

The pace of the game was set as soon as it started as both teams were able to build forward. Although Chelsea did see more of the ball in the first 15 minutes, Tottenham slowly began to take control of the game around the 20-minute mark.

In the 25^th minute, Harry Kane was played clean through on goal by a searching ball from the midfield and as he strode into the box, Kepa immediately rushed forward. Kane expertly touched the ball away and the onrushing keeper’s momentum took the striker out. Upon referring with VAR about a possible offside call, a penalty was awarded to Spurs. Harry Kane stepped up and coolly slotted home to give Spurs the advantage in the first leg.

As the half wore on, Chelsea slowly came back into the game and nearly scored when a cross from the left wing found an approaching Kante who’s flying touch was on target, only to hit the outside of the post.

In a few minutes, Chelsea were whiskers away from equalising when a Hudson-Odoi cross was deflected off Danny Rose and nearly wrongfooted Gazzaniga. He quickly sorted his feet out and got a touch on the ball, which hit the inside of the post and was then cleared by Alderweireld.

The second half followed a very different trend. Chelsea controlled most of the ball throughout the second period with more than 60% possession. The ball was in the Spurs third of the pitch for a large period of time.

Chelsea threw on Pedro in place of Willian to try and affect the game. This switch meant Pedro took his preferred role on the right-hand side and Hudson Odoi switched onto the left.

Although Chelsea had a lot of the ball with patient build-up play and smart passing, they were never really able to make that final pass which would’ve put one of their stars through. Barkley was then substituted and on came Matteo Kovacic. Chelsea kept on pushing switching from wing to wing but to no avail.

Sarri had one final throw of the dice and brought on supersub Olivier Giroud who has a knack for getting late goals. This meant that the last 5 mins were all Chelsea. Pedro and Hazard delivered the ball in from either side but none of the crosses found their desired targets.

Keeping up to the trend of the last few Chelsea games, they seemed to lack a killer touch in front of the goal – the kind of touch only a world-class striker can bring. In the end, Spurs won this tight first leg at the Wembley by a lone Harry Kane penalty.

Disappointed with the result, here’s how some Chelsea fans reacted.