Chelsea vs Southampton LIVE: Carabao Cup result, final score and penalty shootout reaction
Relive all the action live from Stamford Bridge
Chelsea needed penalties to advance in the Carabao Cup for a second consecutive round as they edged past Southampton with a 4-3 shoot-out victory at Stamford Bridge following a 1-1 draw.
Reece James again provided the decisive kick, just as he did against Aston Villa in the previous round, with Theo Walcott and Will Smallbone missing for the Saints.
Kai Havertz headed Chelsea into the lead seconds before half-time, guiding a header into the bottom corner from a corner.
But Southampton would force spot-kicks when Che Adams fired in on the rebound after Kyle Walker-Peters’ effort was saved by the legs of Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Across London, Calum Chambers scored his first goal in more than two years before Eddie Nketiah punished his former club to send Arsenal into the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Leeds.
Chambers scored with his first touch of the night after coming off the bench to replace the injured Benjamin White 10 minutes into the second half.
And former Leeds loanee made sure of the Gunners’ place in the quarter-finals when he punished a mistake from Liam Cooper, whose defensive header never had the power to reach Illan Meslier.
Instead Nketiah skipped through, lifting the ball over the goalkeeper before watching his scuffed finish tuck just inside the post as Leeds defenders scrambled to get back.
The result means Arsenal have now won six of their last eight in all competitions, and are unbeaten since August.
It also went to penalties at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, where League One Sunderland dumped out QPR with a 3-1 shoot-out victory after a goalless draw.
Charlie Austin thought he had scored a late winner to send QPR into the last eight for the first time since 1988.
But a tight offside call went against the home side, and Austin’s misery continued when his spot-kick - the first of the shoot-out - was saved by Sunderland goalkeeper Lee Burge.
He was not the only culprit, though, with Ilias Chair and Yoann Barbet failing to find the target from the spot as QPR went out to League One opposition for a fourth year in a row.
Thomas Tuchel hopes tough love will take Callum Hudson-Odoi to the next level
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel hopes Callum Hudson-Odoi can benefit from some tough love as the 20-year-old forward looks to deliver in front of goal again in the Carabao Cup.
With Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner on the sidelines, Hudson-Odoi was handed a chance to impress against Norwich on Saturday and scored in the first half of the 7-0 victory.
It was Hudson-Odoi’s opening goal of the campaign and followed on from coming off the bench to replace Lukaku in the Champions League against Malmo.
Thomas Tuchel hopes tough love will take Callum Hudson-Odoi to the next level
The England forward scored his first goal of the campaign during the 7-0 Premier League win over Norwich
The last 16 teams
12 of the 16 teams remaining in the Carabao Cup are from the Premier League with QPR, Sunderland, Stoke and Preston the four lower league sides left in the tournament.
10 of the Premier League teams face a fellow top-flight opponent in this fourth round of matches and nine teams are previous winners, including three of the five most successful teams in the history of the competition with Chelsea one of them.
The other two are Manchester City and Liverpool who have both won this trophy eight times compared to Chelsea’s five.
Head-to-head: Chelsea vs Southampton
In recent times this fixtures has been a decent affair. In the last five meetings between the sides Chelsea have won twice, lost once and there have been two draws which at the very least shows that on their day Southampton can be tricky customers for Chelsea. Here are the results of those games:
October 2021: Chelsea 3-1 Southampton
February 2021: Southampton 1-1 Chelsea
October 2020: Chelsea 3-3 Southampton
December 2019: Chelsea 0-2 Southampton
October 2019: Southampton 1-4 Chelsea
Recent results: Chelsea vs Southampton
Both teams are looking to secure a place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a victory tonight but who brings the better momentum into the game?
Chelsea come into the match on the back of an emphatic 7-0 victory over Norwich at the weekend, they are unbeaten in four games including a 3-1 over the Saints in the Premier League at the start of the month.
Southampton meanwhile claimed a 2-2 draw with Burnley on Saturday after bouncing back from their defeat to the Blues with a 1-0 win over Leeds in the league.
If the Saints are victorious tonight they will reach the quarter-final stage for the first time since the 2016-17 season, where they lost out in the final to Manchester United.
For Chelsea, they go in search of winning their first fourth round match of the competition since the 2018-19 season, where they lost out to Manchester City in the final.
Team changes: Chelsea vs Southampton
Lots of changes to talk about here.
Thomas Tuchel swaps out six players from the team that demolished Norwich at the weekend. Kepa Arrizabalaga returns in goal with Malang Sarr joining Trevor Chalobah and Reece James in a back three. Callum Hudson-Odoi keeps his place in the team but moves over to the right wing to accommodate the returning Marcos Alonso. Ross Barkley, Saul Niguez and Hakim Ziyech all come in replacing Jorginho, Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell.
Ralph Hasenhuttl goes even further by replacing nine of the players that drew 2-2 with Burnley last time out. Only Mohammed Salisu and Ibrahima Diallo keep their places in the line-up.
Line-ups: Chelsea vs Southampton
Chelsea XI: Arrizabalaga, James, Chalobah, Sarr, Hudson-Odoi, Barkley, Kovacic, Saul, Alonso, Ziyech, Havertz
Southampton XI: Forster, Valery, Lyanco, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Diallo, S. Armstrong, Tella, Djenpo, Adams, A. Armstrong
Injuries and absentees: Chelsea vs Southampton
Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku are still out for Chelsea and Christian Pulisic continues his recovery from an ankle injury but N’Golo Kante could return.
Southampton will have to make do without Moi Elyounoussi who is recovering from an operation on his wrist, Jack Stephens is a long term absentee and James Ward-Prowse is suspended. Chelsea loanee Armando Broja is ineligible to play against his parent club.
Tuchel preparing to rest players
Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel, echoed Ralph Hasenuttl saying that the Carabao Cup is an opportunity to give some minutes to players who don’t start regularly for the Blues and to take the chance to rest his first choice players during a busy schedule. Tuchel said:
There will be some changes, how much I don’t know yet. Sometimes you can never be fully sure, do you interrupt a good flow, is it better to keep everybody in there and playing to keep the momentum going or is it the moment to give some players a rest?
“We had a late game on Wednesday and an early game on Saturday and another one on Tuesday. So it’s very likely that we have some changes.
“It is a moment in the Carabao Cup to give some players some minutes. Still, it needs to make sense, it needs to be fair also to the player. Do we have his position available, do we have a position where he can show his potential, so he gets better and better?’
“At the moment I’m happy that everyone who comes on and plays, plays with the same style and intensity. I’m in the spirit right now of what I like about the team, that when we play, we play and we push ourselves to the limit on this very special matchday, and this will be next on Tuesday against Southampton.”
Hasenhuttl hints at changes
Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has hinted at plenty of changes to his starting XI for tonight’s Carabao Cup clash against Chelsea saying:
Cup games are a good option for giving players a chance. The good thing is we have five subs on Tuesday, so if anyone is not starting then there are options from the bench.
“This is what I’m always preferring for the Premier League, I would like to have five subs in the Premier League. It would make it much more easy for us to give everybody enough game time and hopefully that will come one day.”
Chelsea host Southampton in Carabao Cup round of 16
Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage as Chelsea host Southampton in the Carabao Cup round of 16. Thomas Tuchel is aiming to break Pep Guardiola’s recent stranglehold on the competition and add a second piece of silverware during his short tenure at Chelsea, but the Premier League remains a clear priority for the Blues and they are likely to field a much-changed eleven.
Southampton may also make several changes with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side having struggled to get a foothold in the league so far this season, winning just one out of nine games, ahead of a potentially key game against Watford at the weekend.
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