How should Chelsea line up against Spurs to finish the job in the League Cup semifinal?

Chelsea have a solid but certainly not insurmountable leads over Spurs going into Wednesday’s second leg (away) in this bafflingly two-legged League Cup semifinal, and to follow through on that 2-0 first leg win and reach the final, we will probably have to take things very seriously.

The squad should be as well rested as they can be at this point in the season following the easy runout against Chesterfield over the weekend, which is good since the upcoming slate looks much more daunting: Spurs, Manchester City, Brighton, then Spurs again, then an FA Cup match, before jetting off to the Club World Cup.

There is a small chance that Thiago Silva and N’Golo Kanté could be back for this game, but even if they clear COVID protocol, they’d be unlikely to be thrown straight back into action, at least not from the start. Trevoh Chalobah and Reece James remain out, Édouard Mendy’s away on international duty, and there was some small concern about Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as well after their weekend runabout.

Chelsea U21 have their EFL Trophy Round of 16 match against Arsenal’s academy later today (Tuesday), which could factor into who, if any, youth may stay with the first-team this week.

Choose wisely.

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