Chelsea beats Aston Villa in penalties and advances to EFL Cup 4th round

Chelsea advances to the 4th round of the EFL Cup as they beat Aston Villa 4-3 in penalties after drawing 1-1 in regular time. The Blues rotated their squad well, but managed to squeak past the resilient side.

Thomas Tuchel names Kepa Arrizabalaga, Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Malang Sarr, Ben Chilwell, N’Golo Kanté, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Saúl, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Timo Werner, and Hakim Ziyech to the starting XI. Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley, and Mason Mount all came on as substitutes in the second half.

The goal scorers were Timo Werner and Cameron Archer. The goal scorers in the penalty shootout for Chelsea were Lukaku, Mount, Barkley, and James. The goal scorers in the penalty shootout for Aston Villa were El Ghazi, Konsa, and Buendia.

Chelsea’s top performers were Arrizabalaga, James, Loftus-Cheek, and Werner. All had great games and made well use of their minutes.

This game was big for Loftus-Cheek as it has been a rough comeback for him since getting a major injury two years ago. He was superb throughout this game and showed some shades of his former self under Maurizio Sarri.

The Blues move onto the 4th round of the EFL Cup and will face Southampton at home.