Arsenal reached the Carabao Cup final with a late victory over Chelsea, edging closer to ending our trophy drought that stretches back to 2020.

Leading 3-2 from the first leg, the Gunners displayed a defensive masterclass before substitute Kai Havertz delivered the decisive blow in the 97th minute. The German composed himself brilliantly, rounding goalkeeper Robert Sanchez before calmly converting to spark wild celebrations.

We now await the winners of Manchester City versus Newcastle for the Wembley showpiece next month.

Trailing by a goal from the first-leg, Chelsea had to score twice to win the semi-final, but the Chelsea boss fielded three centre-backs and named five defenders in the starting XI.

He benched Cole Palmer, Estevao and Alejandro Garnacho and played Liam Delap as a right-winger!

Clearly in shock from the total domination we displayed at Stamford Bridge, where we should have scored at least six goals and unlucky to concede two, the Chelsea manager knew his side would be blown away if he went on to attack from the beginning.

So, instead of taking the game to Arsenal, he went with a defensive formation trying to contain us, with the idea of nicking a goal or two towards the end of the game.

Some of the pundits hailed his ‘brilliance’. Troy Deeney, at the end of the first half, suggested Rosenoir would be happier of the two managers, while the ever ‘brilliant’ Gary Neville suggested that “Rosenoir is slowly walking Arsenal to a cliff edge.”

Rosenior apparently also found a revolutionary way to deal with our corner routines — keeping three players on the halfway line. Except that this tactic has been tried before against us by managers in the past. Monaco and Olympiacos in the Champions League in 2024, Brighton & Hove Albion in 2025. In fact, Chelsea themselves have used this under Enzo Maresca against Tottenham.

And did this work against us? No. We got two corners and both fell to one of our players, with Hincapie heading just over the bar.

Chelsea hogged possession for the opening 45 minutes, passing sideways and back, happy to deny our forwards clear opportunities without creating anything themselves. The closest they came was from a Enzo Fernandez shot from distance just before the interval, which was easily dealt with by Kepa.

Rosenoir brought Palmer and Estevao on the hour mark in place of Jorrel Hato and Liam Delap, with Garnacho coming on a little later to try to add pressure to our defence.

But defensive solidity has been a hallmark of our campaign this season and there was no way we were going to concede. Over the course of the season so far, we have conceded only 25 goals in all competitions.

With no way through, they could manage only a few speculative shots from distance. And as they pushed for the all important goal, Chelsea got what they came here to do.

Declan Rice found Havertz, recently back from injury, with a cross-field pass and the former Chelsea man delivered the crushing blow with the last kick of the ball.

On to Wembley we go now, our first League Cup final appearance since 2018.