It is a decisive derby day under the midweek floodlights and only one side from the capital can continue on English football’s quickest path to glory and a UEFA ticket.

For the Blues, the next two weeks bring stress-testing Saturday-Tuesday turnarounds on all fronts.

Both sides were in Premier League action just three days ago, Arsenal staying top with a win at 16th-placed Leeds United. Later on Saturday, the world champions snatched London bragging rights with a 3-2 beating of West Ham United, the sixth win in seven games of the Rosenior regime.

This is the 63rd time Chelsea have reached the last four of a major competition and we progressed from 10 of the last 16 semis in this competition.

The hosts hold a narrow 3-2 advantage from the first leg, but the Blues have a better track record in the League Cup and faced a similar loss at the halfway stage of the tie when the London rivals clashed in 1998. The Blues roared to victory in the second leg under new player-manager Gianluca Vialli and went on to win the final at Wembley.

Route to the semi-finals

Chelsea
Lincoln City (a) 2-1
Wolverhampton Wanderers (a) 4-3
Cardiff City (a) 3-1

Arsenal
Burnley (a) 2-1
Wrexham (a) 2-1
Crystal Palace (h) 1-1 (8-7 pens)

Chelsea team news

In addition to Levi Colwill, Dario Essugo, Romeo Lavia and Tosin Adarabioyo continuing their rehab following injury, Rosenior confirmed in his press conference on Saturday that there are three more players whose involvement in this semi-final is in doubt for different reasons - Estevao Willian, Jamie Gittens and Filip Jorgensen.

‘I don't know yet,' said our head coach. 'With Este, he's a young kid who's come and been magnificent. He's going through a really difficult time for personal reasons and he's on compassionate leave. I won't put any pressure on him.

‘Jamie unfortunately felt his hamstring against West Ham, I don't know the extent of the injury. It's a real shame for him because I wanted to give him a start and I wanted him to show what he could do. So, for him to come off after 25 minutes is disappointing for him and hopefully it's not too bad.

‘Filip is close. He's close to being fit and hopefully it'll be either Arsenal or the game after this.’

The History

Chelsea have faced rivals Arsenal more times than any other team. This will be the 214th meeting.

A massive second leg in which the Gunners host the Blues instantly brings to mind the UEFA Champions League in 2004, when a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge set up an unforgettable 2-1 triumph for the Blues at Highbury, Wayne Bridge scoring the famous winner.

Although the Blues made history that night, it was for becoming the first London club to win a quarter-final in Europe’s marquee competition, not a last-four game.

The capital’s top two clubs have met six times previously in the chase for this trophy and Chelsea have won four of them. The most recent was in January 2018 when a 0-0 at the Bridge was followed by a 2-1 home win for the Gunners, who lost to Manchester City in the final.

The two teams locked horns at the penultimate stage for the first time 20 years earlier. The Gunners gained a 2-1 first-leg advantage over Ruud Gullit’s side at Highbury and followed that with a 2-0 league win, again in north London.

Before the second leg of the semi at the Bridge, Gullit was suddenly replaced by player-manager Vialli. Unusually, in the Stamford Bridge dressing room that evening, the Italian toasted his first match in charge with a glass of champagne for his players.

He then exerted a more tangible influence by being on the pitch until the final 10 minutes, leaving the field to a standing ovation. Re-energised and hungrier, Chelsea ripped into the visitors, and three goals well-taken by Mark Hughes, Roberto Di Matteo and Dan Petrescu swung the tie, helped by Patrick Vieira’s red card at 1-0.

Arsenal’s late penalty was not enough to prevent the Blues reaching the final, where beating Middlesbrough delivered the first of Vialli’s three trophies in six months.

In the previous round of this season's competition, before Christmas, Chelsea won at Cardiff, which was the host city of our 2-1 victory over Arsenal in 2007, the only meeting between the two Londoners in the final of the League Cup.

Know this...

Chelsea are the leading goal scorers among the League Cup’s four semi-finalists with 11, and Alejandro Garnacho is the top marksman with four.

Chelsea are London’s first and most recent winners of the League Cup.

In the other semi-final tomorrow, Newcastle will attempt to overcome a 2-0 first-leg deficit at Man City.

After tonight, Arsenal will be our joint-second most-frequent opponent in this competition, alongside Liverpool (10 matches).

Since mid-December, seven of the Gunners’ 31 goals in all competitions - almost a quarter - have been own goals scored by an opposing player.

Between 9 April 1960 and 4 September 1965, the Blues won on all six visits to Highbury, scoring three or more each time – 4-1, 4-1, 3-0, 4-2, 3-1 and 3-1.

Saturday’s 3-2 against West Ham was the first time in 57 attempts that Chelsea have come back from two or more goals down at half-time to win a Premier League match. Six of the previous occasions ended in a draw, with the other 50 being defeats.

Liam Rosenior has become the fourth English manager to win his first three Premier League games in charge, after Bobby Gould (Coventry City) in August 1992, Sam Allardyce (Bolton Wanderers) in August 2001 and Craig Shakespeare (Leicester City) in April 2017.

Carabao Cup regulations

The winners of this semi-final will contest the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on 22 March.

VAR is in use from this stage of the competition and all yellow cards accrued were wiped after the quarter-finals.

There is no away goals rule. Extra time will be used tonight should aggregate scores be level, after which the outcome may be decided with penalties.

The Blues’ most recent shootout was a 4-2 success during a League Cup quarter-final against Newcastle United in December 2023. The league leaders reached this stage on penalty kicks, beating Crystal Palace 8-7.