Chelsea vs Arsenal Prediction: Gunners to seize control of tie at the Bridge

Liam Rosenior will make his Stamford Bridge debut as Chelsea boss when the Blues host Arsenal in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie on Wednesday night (20:00 GMT, live on Sky Sports Main Event).

Chelsea were 5-1 winners against Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup at the weekend, while the Gunners also booked their place in the next round with a 4-1 thumping of Portsmouth. Read on for my Chelsea vs Arsenal predictions as well as the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Moises Caicedo will miss out through suspension here, but Marc Cucurella is available for selection again after serving a one-match suspension of his own.

Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill both remain on the treatment table for the Blues, while Mykhaylo Mudryk continues to serve a doping ban.

As for Arsenal, Kai Havertz made his long-awaited return as a substitute against Pompey, but Piero Hincapie, Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera all remain sidelined for the Gunners due to injury. Promising youngster Max Dowman continues to recover from an ankle problem.

Chelsea vs Arsenal Odds

Chelsea are 23/10 to claim a win in the first leg, the draw is 12/5 and Arsenal are 5/4, giving them an implied win probability of 44.4%.

Victor Gyokores is favourite to score anytime at 13/8, and both teams to score is currently available at 8/11.

Arsenal to win @ 5/4

With Arsenal currently sitting top of the Premier League, I don't think it'll be too often where they'll be odds-against for a game, so I'm going to take their 5/4 price for Wednesday's encounter.

The Gunners are eight games unbeaten against Chelsea in the league, and haven't lost at Stamford Bridge since 2018. When you also consider the fact that Chelsea are still getting to grips to life under their new manager Rosenior, I think this is a cracking price to back Mikel Arteta's side.

Arsenal have won seven of their last nine outings, drawing the other two, while Chelsea have just one win in six. I'm backing the Gunners to take control of this tie.

Bet Builder - Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella to commit 2+ fouls each @ 5/2

Generally, when these two sides meets, there's fouls, cards and lots of them.

In the contest at Stamford Bridge at the end of December, there were eight cards, including a red. Cards can be difficult to predict though, as it can depend on who's refereeing the game, and some like to let the action flow. So, I'm going to avoid the cards market and look at two repeat offenders when it comes to fouls - Cucurella and Wesley Fofana.

In his starts across the league and Europe this season, Fofana has committed two or more fouls in seven of his last 10, and the Frenchman tends to struggle to contain the Gunners, committing at least two fouls in his last two meetings with them.

Meanwhile, Cucurella has never been booked more against a single opponent than Arsenal (level with Wolves and Osasuna), suggesting he's going to be penalised several times on Wednesday.

The Spaniard will likely be up against Bukayo Saka who's by far Arsenal's most fouled player at 1.8 times per-game.

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