Chelsea v Swansea: Wednesday 7:45pm Chelsea will be appearing in the League Cup semi-final for the 11th time. They have progressed through to the final in six of their previous 10, including the last three. Swansea, meanwhile, have never made the last four of this competition and have not made the semis of a major domestic cup since the 1964 FA Cup, where they were beaten by Preston. Chelsea have had more shots on target than any other side in the League Cup this season (36). Swansea have scored a goal inside the last 10 minutes of all four of their Capital One Cup games this term. Chelsea and Swansea have met once before in the League Cup, with Chelsea winning 3-2 at home in Round 4 back in 1965. The Blues have won 18 and lost just three of their last 25 League Cup games at Stamford Bridge. Swansea have not kept a clean sheet in any of their last 19 League Cup games away from home, conceding 41 in total. Rafa Benitez’s side have only won two of their last six home games in all competitions, drawing three and losing one. The Swans have only lost one of their last seven away games in all competitions, winning four. Juan Mata has scored two goals and assisted four more in just four League Cup appearances. Chelsea have won three and lost none of their last five clashes with the Swans in all competitions, though both sides have netted in all five of these games.
I fear for us in this match. I just hope it's close enough so that the return leg actually matters. Really don't want to get hammered by 5 or 6 goals. Chelsea seem capable of doing that at the moment.
Yeah, but they also seem capable of a poor performance (0-1 to QPR & Corinithans, scraping wins here and there) That said I think with Demba Ba now in the squad they are less likely to have one of those off-days.
Best of luck Swansea. Hope you keep it in contention tonight and finish it off at the Bridge. Win this and hopefully a winnable final.
If you like stats you may like this http://www.not606.com/showthread.ph...-Table-1st-January-2012-to-31st-December-2012
Average points per game clearly shows that the table is spilt in 3, Spurs up is the top of the table, which is no surprise, West Brom down to Wigan the mid table, and the Saints down are the bottom third of the table. But the biggest movers are us, up 5 places from the beginning of the year, we are making progress.
Cheers, but we're playing tomorrow night and the first leg is at the bridge so hoping to keep in contention there and finish it off at the Liberty
haha, you get what I meant. Heard the villa game was tonight, so just presumed. Well, all the better you are home in the 2nd leg.
From Chelsea v Swansea,BBC Website. "Michael Laudrup ... is as cherished as water in the desert". Gee,wish I'd written that.
Tremmel is in goal according to Laudrup on the club website. He started the competition, so he will finish it, or words to that effect.
So it looks like we are playing in a two leg final against Chelsea because Bradford are leading against Villa and should they prevail, either us or Chelsea have to be odds-on favorites to win the cup.
lol@aston villa Begs the question why we couldn't beat them though. Swansea V Bradford in the final would certainly be the neutrals choice though!
And that result against them was the reason I was so disappointed (thanks for reminding me ,I'm just off to a darkened room)
Can't see us beating Chelsea over two legs to be honest they must be considered hot favourites. However if we did pull it off and Bradford hold on then what a shock final that would be. We would find ourselves as big favourites and every neutral in the country would be supporting Bradford. I could never imagine myself saying that about a major cup final even as short as 3 years ago. Surreal !!
The last time we played at the Bridge we had Gower in midfield. Tonight is going to be completely different .... I hope.
This will be a tough game against a very talented team. If we sit back and let them attack us, as we did Arsenal, then we are asking for trouble. If we play to our full potential we might have a chance of having something to play for at the Liberty. Hoping and praying that will be the case.
Good luck at the bridge tonight - I hope you give them a tough game and come away with a good result. I also hope that you give Everton a good going over at the the weekend- then you might just be too knackerred for our replay next wednesday!! Seriously though, Good Luck tonight, your team deserve to get to Wembley on the showing this season - whether you'll be good enough to beat Bradford though remains a serious doubt!!!
All we must make sure tonight is to keep it tight and score a goal, Losing 2-1 is not a disaster and a 1-1 draw would be fantastic. we have gone there before and did well and as long as sir Mike puts in a strong team then there is no reason why we cant bring them back to the liberty in two weeks time and get the result we need...
