Arsenal Without Mesut Ozil and 5 Other Senior Players Ahead of Carabao Cup Semi Final With Chelsea

Arsenal are without Mesut Ozil and five other senior players for their first leg tie in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tonight. The

Arsenal are without Mesut Ozil and five other senior players for their first leg tie in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tonight. 

The Guardian report that Ozil has an unspecified injury and joins Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud on the casualty list for the London Derby. 

As is often the case for Arsenal cup ties, David Ospina will replace Petr Cech in goal but other than that, Wenger will pick his strongest available team. 

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This is likely to include Alexis Sanchez, despite the fact that Manchester City are strongly linked with the Chile international. City agreed a deal for Sánchez last August worth £55m plus £5m in add-ons only for it to collapse when Arsenal failed to sign Monaco’s Thomas Lemar as a replacement. 

New signing Konstantinos Mavropanos is likely to be involved on the bench despite the fact that Wenger has said: "He’s not ready to play for us, We’ll give him out on loan." 

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The 20-year old was signed last week from AS Giannina in Greece and looks set to be involved at Stamford Bridge tonight.

Arsenal are aiming to reach their first League Cup final since 2011 as they try and lift the trophy for the first time since 1993, it is the one trophy in English football that has not been won by Arsene Wenger. 

They have knocked out Doncaster Rovers, Norwich City and West Ham to get this far. It could be the most realistic source of silverware for the Gunners this season after they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Nottingham Forest on Sunday.