All eyes are on Chelsea’s new manager Liam Rosenior as Stamford Bridge is set to host Arsenal for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
Rosenior, who has taken over the scraps left by Enzo Maresca, believes his team has the quality and yet has already called Arsenal a well rounded team with an ability to take on any opposition.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has a host of injuries to deal with. With William Saliba, Piero Hincapié, Riccardo Calafiori and even back up defender Cristhian Mosquera all set to miss the team bus to West London, he may be wondering what his defensive line-up will look like.
Arsenal, who sit six points clear at the top of the Premier League, are expected to rotate their squad, with even attackers and midfielders set for changes. Declan Rice is likely to start on the bench or miss the Stamford Bridge clash altogether.
Mikel Arteta Reuters
Arteta spoke about taking caution and keeping all his players in top condition as the Gunners were in contention for all three domestic titles as well as the Champions League.
Chelsea started well against Charlton in the FA Cup, and the Stamford Bridge crowd will see Rosenior in the home dugout for the first time. However, with the fan base already on edge, there is uncertainty about backing the new manager, despite his successful stint at French side Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, the youngest squad in Europe on average.
Strasbourg who were predicted to be relegated last season ended up finishing 7th to qualify for the Conference League.
Liam Rosenior Reuters
Rosenior has already expressed he knows the quality of his side but it will be an uphill task to start seeing success. The Blues saw their Club World Cup winning manager Enzo Maresca part ways after falling out with the board after two wins in seven games.
In his first match in-charge, Rosenior’s Blues won the FA Cup tie at Charlton 5-1 and will look to build on that. That win made Rossenior the first Chelsea manager to win his first game in charge since Antonio Conte did the same in 2016.
Under Maresca it often felt like Chelsea’s off-the- ball work was too demanding, leaving players little time to recover. Rosenier’s style will give these players breathing space to recover, leaving them more potent on the attack.
Arsenal are in rich form, entering this match with a win of nine matches. Their last loss came against Aston Villa on 6 December 2025. Chelsea have struggled, with the managerial change and Callum McFarlane taking over for two games in the middle. The chopping and changing has left Chelsea with three wins in their last ten games across competitions.
Rosenior will need to get results quickly and there is no better place to start against city rivals Arsenal. If they can pull out a performance like they did against Man City where they equalised in the last minute of the match, the fans will accept what Rosenior has to offer.
On a six and a half year contract from the club in West London, Rosenior may have time on his side, but without the support of the Chelsea fans, it won’t be an easy stint.
The first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals starts at 1:30am IST live on FanCode. While the match won’t decide who gets into the finals right away, the winner of this leg will have an upper hand ahead of the second leg on 4 February.