Chelsea needed penalties for the second successive round to beat their opponents in the EFL Cup. Elsewhere, Arsenal scored twice to dump Leeds United out of the competition, inflicting further misery on Marcelo Bielsa’s men.
Late injury troubles meant that Chelsea were without Lukaku, Werner, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Kante, and Loftus-Cheek for the game against the Saints.
Saul Niguez – who has had a rough start to life in London – came into midfield to partner Mateo Kovacic and nearly scored his first Blues goal from a corner in the early stages, only to be denied by a superb acrobatic save from Fraser Forster.
Forster, however, couldn’t do much about Kai Havertz’s header from a corner late in the first half. The German forward rose highest to flick a Hakim Ziyech delivery into the far corner, giving Chelsea the lead. Southampton hit back immediately after the break; Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot from a tight angle squirmed through Kepa Arrizabalaga’s legs and into the path of Che Adams, who smashed it into the net from a yard out.
Both goalkeepers pulled off some sensational stops to keep the scores level late on. Forster denied Saul again from distance while Kepa made two superb saves in the last minute of stoppage time to force a shootout.
The Chelsea custodian then dived the right way to deny Theo Walcott in the shootout, as Forster did to Mason Mount. Southampton’s Will Smallbone skied his penalty, allowing Reece James to win the match for the Blues with his deciding kick.
Not far away in North London, Arsenal welcomed Leeds United for their EFL Cup Last 16 tie. The Gunners – unbeaten in eight – nearly fell behind early on but had reserve goalkeeper Bernd Leno to thank, who made an instinctive, low stop to deny Jack Harrison from giving Leeds the lead.
Callum Chambers forced the ball over the line in the 55th minute after it bounced around following a corner to give Arsenal the lead. Former Leeds loanee Eddie Nketiah doubled the Gunners’ lead in the 69th minute when he capitalized on a poor back header by Liam Cooper before flicking the ball over Illan Meslier and firing it into an empty net. Mikel Arteta’s men held on to their lead to progress to the Last Eight.
