Chelsea's own caution versus Arsenal costs Blues any shot at EFL Cup as Kai Havertz punishes former employers

Liam Rosenior's approach to Tuesday's EFL Cup semifinal made sense in principle, but it proved to be the wrong call

LONDON -- In principle, Liam Rosenior's approach on Tuesday night made sense. Away to a superior opponent in the EFL Cup semifinal second leg, trailing by a fine margin, you could talk yourself into waiting an hour before really applying yourself on the contest in any meaningful way.

In practice, this proved to be an almighty misjudgement from an inexperienced head coach, one that ended in the cruellest fashion for Chelsea, downed by the man they once celebrated as the best on earth, Kai Havertz, slapping the Arsenal badge in delight after rounding Robert Sanchez and slotting home. It was just the wake-up call his old club needed, the moment to draw a bit of impetus out of the Blues. Unfortunately, it came in the 97th minute in a 1-0 win for the Gunners.

For too many of those before, Chelsea had been content to let this contest drift vaguely towards a stalemate, in the hope that a set piece might swing the day or, far more unlikely, Arsenal might hand them a route back into the game with an error. There were some intriguing quirks around the edges, a couple of tweaks with and without the ball that asked tricky questions of their hosts. What there was not was any real evidence of a plan to move the ball into the sort of areas where Kepa Arrizabalaga might really be tested.

First of all, the mitigations. Rosenior noted post-match that he had been unable to name his team until the afternoon of the game as he sweated on the fitness of his stars. Cole Palmer's minutes had to be carefully managed, and there was extra time to consider. "He is a gem," said Rosenior. "We have to take care of him and make sure he's right for the whole season. When he came on, his moments were top."

Rosenior revealed after the game that both Pedro Neto and Reece James had been laid low with small knocks while he was glowing in his praise of Estevao, who had been absent on compassionate grounds over the weekend but flew back from Brazil. That is four of the players most likely to deliver something from nothing, none of them seeing the pitch until an hour had been played.