Xhaka seals final berth for Arsenal

The two sides went into the game with the tie finely poised following the 0-0 draw in the first leg, but despite Arsenal having home advantage, it was Chelsea who came flying out of the blocks.

With just five minutes gone the visitors had a goal disallowed as Pedro was correctly adjudged to have strayed marginally offside before heading home Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross from deep but Arsenal failed to heed the warning as they fell behind for real just two minutes later.

Pedro found himself with time and space and as he headed for goal, he took advantage of a poor piece of positioning from Laurent Koscielny to slip Eden Hazard in behind, with the Belgian keeping his cool to slot past David Ospina and open the scoring.

Chelsea were well on top at this point but were pegged back with 12 minutes on the clock as Nacho Monreal’s goal-bound header from a Mesut Ozil corner from the left deflected in off both Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger.

Not perturbed by the equaliser, Chelsea continued in the same vein, dominating possession but arguably not creating the chances they should have done given their dominance.

Willian had a good chance to put the ‘Blues’ back into the lead not long after Arsenal’s goal but he could only drag an effort wide of the far post after Hazard’s superb dummy left him one-on-one with Monreal.

That was to be the highlight of the Brazilian’s night as he limped off in the 30th minute after pulling up during a sprint, with Ross Barkley coming on for his Chelsea debut.

Granit Xhaka saw a free kick from the byline deflected onto the roof of the net as time ticked away before the break, whilst Mesut Ozil was unlucky to see his low effort deflected narrowly wide of the far post after being slipped in by Jack Wilshere.

Despite Chelsea’s dominance of the ball, the two sides went in level and the visitors were soon made to regret their inability to turn possession into goals as Arsenal improved hugely after the break.

- Much-improved Arsenal -

Whatever was said in the Arsenal dressing room at half-time clearly worked as the ‘Gunners’ came out looking reborn.

Xhaka curled over from 25 yards within minutes of the restart, whilst Azpilicueta was lucky to see the ball fizz narrowly over his own crossbar as he blocked Alex Iwobi’s low cross from the left.

Chelsea were unrecognisable in the second period and Arsenal made them pay on the hour mark.

Alexandre Lacazette did well to work the channel down the right and his low cross was directed towards his own goal by Rudiger, with Xhaka on hand to prod home from close range to give Arsenal the lead for the first time in the tie.

From that point on Arsenal never looked like surrendering the lead and indeed had the best chance of what was left of the game as Iwobi was denied by Willy Caballero following a flowing counter.

As time ticked away, Arsenal rather comfortably held out to claim victory, booking their place in next month's final against Manchester City and giving manager Arsene Wenger the chance to win a trophy that has eluded him so far in his lengthy managerial career.