Chelsea and Arsenal played out a goalless draw in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Clear chances were few and far between at both ends of the field in what was the second London derby between the two teams in the space of a week.
Chelsea had the best openings, but Arsenal managed to grind out a second consecutive 0-0 stalemate at Stamford Bridge to leave them with the very slight advantage heading into the second leg at the Emirates Stadium in a fortnight.
Whereas the 2-2 Premier League draw between the two sides a week ago was action-packed from the first whistle to the last, it took until midway through the first half for either side to have a notable sight of goal, and even then it was wasted by Alexandre Lacazette as he sliced an effort high and wide of the target after beating the offside trap.
Chelsea responded with their own chance two minutes later when Victor Moses cut inside before drilling a low strike towards the near post, which David Ospina needed no attempts to get hold of, with Cesc Fabregas lurking.
Moses came close again shortly before the half-hour mark with another left-footed snapshot towards the bottom corner, but once again Ospina was down smartly to deny the Chelsea wing-back, with a little help from the woodwork.
The second half got off to a brighter start for Chelsea as they put their London rivals under some early pressure after the restart, with Andreas Christensen the first to threaten when he failed to steer a header on target after Marcos Alonso had flicked the ball on to him at the back post.
It was Chelsea who continued to look the most like scoring, though, and Moses saw a vicious low drive deflected over from Mustafi before Ospina was left in no-man’s land from the resulting corner, only for Christensen to plant his header wide of the target with the goal gaping.
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