Chelsea face Tottenham Hotspur in their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night.
Spurs hold a 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Wembley a couple of weeks ago, but will defend that narrow lead away from home and with a weakened team after injuries to key players.
Chelsea team news
Chelsea have no fresh injury worries at the time of writing. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (back) is the only player ruled out of this game.
Spurs team news
Attacking midfielder Dele Alli (hamstring) joins striker Harry Kane (ankle) in being ruled out of this game.
Heung-min Son is still in the United Arab Emirates on international duty with South Korea.
Moussa Sissoko (groin) and long-term absentee Victor Wanyama (knee) are also sidelined.
But Mauricio Pochettino indicated after last weekend’s Premier League win over Fulham that Lucas Moura (knee) is now fit and available for selection.
Chelsea form
Maurizio Sarri’s side come into this match off the back of a defeat to Spurs’ north London rivals Spurs. After that game, the Italian coach had questioned his players’ motivation and fight, so it will be interesting to see if that has a positive or negative impact.
The first leg defeat means the Blues have lost two of their last three games.
Spurs form
Two Premier League defeats – to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester United – in their last five league games have blemished an otherwise impressive run of form for Spurs.
They bounced back from the United loss with a hard-fought win at Fulham last time out.
Chelsea vs Spurs betting
Scour any sportsbook soccer betting site and you will see that Chelsea are the hot favourites to win this one (at least over the 90 minutes of the second leg).
There are a few reasons why favourites with odds of around 8/13 with most bookmakers. These include home advantage at Stamford Bridge, the injuries to key Spurs players and the fact that a draw on the night will be enough for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, so they might not be as inclined to go out to win the game.
A Spurs win is at 5/1, while the draw is at 16/5.
