EFL Cup semi-final second legs football tips and predictions – Copybet

Chelsea gave a good account of themselves in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final against Premier League leaders Arsenal, and they are capable of putting up a decent fight in the second leg at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, although preventing the Gunners from appearing in the final may be beyond them.

The Blues have won five successive games since their 3-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge, with the clear highlight being the 3-2 win over Napoli in the Champions League. That effort showed Chelsea are capable of a big performance on the road, which bodes well for this assignment, but Arsenal should come through.

Liam Rosenoir is winning over the Chelsea faithful with his early results as manager, but there has been plenty of avoidable drama too, and Saturday's 3-2 home win over strugglers West Ham was another example of them making things hard for themselves.

The Blues went 2-0 behind in the first 36 minutes of that contest and a similarly slow start against the Gunners would be much harder to recover from.

Arsenal have been beaten only three times in 37 matches this season and their recent 3-2 loss to Manchester United was the first time they had been defeated at home.

Rosenior's side are more than capable of getting on the scoresheet, as both teams have scored in eight of Arsenal's last 10 matches at the Emirates and there have been four or more goals in eight of their last 10 games overall.

The Blues have found the net in all five of their away defeats this season and another consolation strike, or even two, in a second-leg loss looks a likely outcome.

There's a two-goal gap between Manchester City and Newcastle going into the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final and it's hard to see the visitors getting back into the tie.

In fact, there may not be much goalscoring action at all and under 2.5 goals could be a winning bet, as it was for the St James' Park meeting between the teams.

Scoring goals at the Etihad has been a major problem for Newcastle, who have lost to nil on seven successive visits, and in their current mediocre form they may find it hard to break that trend.

The Magpies have won only one of their last seven games in all competitions inside 90 minutes and their only success in their last seven away trips was at struggling Burnley.

Eddie Howe's team showed up well in a 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain last week but they lost 2-0 at home to Aston Villa in the league before that and were beaten 4-1 at Liverpool on Saturday after taking an early lead.

City let a 2-0 lead slip in a 2-2 draw at Tottenham on Sunday, but four of their previous five matches had finished with exactly two goals and this match could follow suit with a low-scoring home win looking likely as Pep Guardiola's team defend their lead.