Chelsea – Arsenal

The home team won't disappoint the new coach in the London derby.

London derby, without a doubt, attracts far more attention from neutral fans in the EFL Cup semifinal than the rivalry between Newcastle and Manchester City. And it's not only about the strained relations between the teams and the sharpness of their duels. At this moment, the situation at Chelsea is very interesting. On the first day of this year, the Blues parted ways with Enzo Maresca — the coach who, in just a year and a half at the helm, won two international trophies: the Conference League and the Club World Cup. The formal reason for the Italian specialist's dismissal was Chelsea's downturn in form, but many sources point to strained relations between Maresca and the club's leadership and to the appeal of the latest results of Liam Rosenior's work at Strasbourg, a close-knit club. It was this coach who was given the vacated position left by Maresca. At Arsenal, meanwhile, such events are not in the air. For many years the Gunners have consistently progressed under the leadership of Mikel Arteta, who enjoys the respect of both fans and the club's owners. After Arsene Wenger, the Spaniard handles responsibilities at Arsenal better than others; it remains to be proven by trophies. Bookmakers have named the visitors the favorites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 2.29 on their victory. Chelsea managed to play one match under Rosenior. In it the team defeated their Charlton locals 5-1, acting as the immediate backup to the regular first-team squad. In other words, the focus on the upcoming match with Arsenal is clear. The upcoming match for Chelsea's regular players will be a small exam ahead of the new coach and extremely important for the latter. As for Arsenal, everything is much simpler. Surely, Arteta does not mark the upcoming match as something special. At least, if against Portsmouth on Sunday many of the Gunners' starting XI took the field after the tough Boxing Day period, then it would be wise not to rule out squad rotation in the match against Chelsea, the result of which can be corrected in the return leg at the Emirates. We'll bet on the more motivated home side.