Here’s a look at how the Blues reached the final of this competition for the ninth time in our history.

Third Round – Aston Villa (h)

Malang Sarr made his Chelsea debut and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ben Chilwell started for the Blues for the first time this season when we hosted Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on 22 September, 11 days after we had beaten them 3-0 in the Premier League.

After a goalless first half, Timo Werner put the Blues in front after 54 minutes when he headed in Reece James’ pin-point cross. However, we didn’t make the most of our opportunities to extend our advantage and Cameron Archer levelled the score to force a penalty shoot-out.

Kepa Arrizabalaga’s shoot-out heroics had helped the Blues beat Villarreal in the Super Cup a month earlier and the Spanish keeper came up big again as he kept out Marvelous Nakamba’s attempt, setting the stage for James to convert and seal our progression.

Fourth Round – Southampton (h)

A penalty shoot-out was required once again when we hosted Southampton at the Bridge in October after our fourth-round encounter also ended in a 1-1 draw.

Kai Havertz put the Blues ahead when he nodded in Hakim Ziyech’s corner just before half-time but the Saints responded almost immediately after the restart as Che Adams tapped in after Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot had squirmed past Kepa.

However, the goalkeeper redeemed himself by keeping out Will Smallbone’s header in regulation time before tipping Theo Walcott’s attempt in the shoot-out against the upright. Smallbone also blasted his effort over the crossbar as James netted our decisive spot-kick for the second time in the competition.

Quarter-finals – Brentford (a)

With injuries and Covid-19 sidelining several of his players, Thomas Tuchel gave teenagers Harvey Vale, Xavier Simons and Jude Soonsup-Bell their senior debuts when we made the short journey to Brentford for a quarter-final derby in December.

Kepa produced a series of saves to deny Yoane Wissa, Mathias Jensen and Rico Henry in the first half and the game remained scoreless until the 80th minute when James’ low cross was inadvertently turned in by Brentford’s Pontus Jansson.

With five minutes left, Christian Pulisic was brought down in the box by goalkeeper Alvaro Fernandez and Jorginho coolly slotted home the resulting penalty to seal a 2-0 win.

Semi-finals – Tottenham Hotspur

After hard-fought wins in the previous three rounds, our semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur proved far less dramatic as we outplayed our London rivals over two games.

The tone was set in a 2-0 win in the first leg at the Bridge as Marcos Alonso stole possession in the Spurs half and set up Havertz to put us ahead after five minutes before the visitors conceded a farcical own goal when Ben Davies deflected Japhet Tanganga’s attempted clearance into his net.

Toni Rudiger padded our advantage with a header after 18 minutes in the return game and although Spurs produced a better performance at their own stadium, they were denied even a consolation as a Harry Kane goal and two penalties were correctly overturned by VAR in our 3-0 aggregate victory.