Chelsea cruise to EFL Cup final as Ben Chilwell inspires Blues to convincing Middlesbrough win

LONDON — They might have changed the backroom staff, the players and the coaches but some things are immutable at Stamford Bridge. And so it is that even in this most deeply disappointing of seasons, Chelsea have positioned themselves to have a real shot at silverware once more.

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An EFL Cup and upper midtable league finish might hardly be the stuff of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s dreams but indoctrinating this squad into reaching, perhaps even winning finals, is not to be sniffed at, particularly for such a raw group of prospects. Mauricio Pochettino could hardly hide his indifference towards the domestic cups as he plotted Tottenham’s rise to prominence. Lifting one at Wembley next month would curry him an almighty amount of favor from Chelsea supporters.

In the end, Chelsea, 6-1 victors over Middlesbrough, breezed to Wembley. They so often do. Of the 18 seasons since the national stadium was rebuilt, 15 have seen it host a showpiece cup tie involving the Blues. There were a few wobbles at the outset, moments when Pochettino seemed baffled at the sedate pace of passing moves that would end in a defender hoofing the ball to Middlesbrough goalkeeper Tom Glover. Eventually, the old swagger returned, a belief that they are simply superior to their opponents, which Chelsea seem to have lost in the turbulence of recent years.

Perhaps it was no surprise that it was returning captain Ben Chilwell, one of only two of the 2021 Champions League winners in Tuesday’s side, who seemed to imbue the Blues with that. From the outset, he had the bearing of a true skipper, robustly reminding Levi Colwill that he needed to be progressing the ball with pace, demanding Mykhailo Mudryk get his positioning right.

He could only ask so much of his teammates because he delivered by the spade load. Having a true fullback roaming the left unlocks Chelsea in a way that a repurposed Colwill just can’t. Within a few minutes, Chilwell was inverting so dramatically that he might as well have been Armando Broja’s strike partner, darting onto a ball over the top but losing a thudding aerial duel to Glover.

With license to roam, the Blues’ skipper found pockets between the Middlesbrough lines. Winning the ball in the number 10 position, a flick from the outside of his left boot took three defenders out of the game, freeing Raheem Sterling to charge through and square it. Broja might have scored but for the despairing final touch of Jonny Howson.

Had the sparky Morgan Rogers converted a bright short corner routine, there might have been a way to Wembley for Boro, who looked more than a match for their billion-pound opponents early on. Their resolve, however, was crushed by Chelsea’s other fullback, whose driving runs from the right created an overload Lukas Engel simply couldn’t repel. First, Axel Disasi crossed low from the byline for Enzo Fernandez to turn in via a Broja deflection. Then the versatile Frenchman, looking more at home on the flank with every passing game, took matters into his own hands.

An explosive burst of pace saw Disasi steal a pass in midfield. From there, he kept going, his momentum inexorable. It would simply have been cruel for Sterling to let that go to waste. Instead, Disasi got a pass right into his path to crunch home the third.

A shell-shocked Boro could not even keep the score down from there out. Cole Palmer picked the pocket of Daniel Barlaser as Michael Carrick’s side stuck to principles of playing out from the back that will serve them well more often than not. You could hardly blame those traveling fans who opted to make a headstart on the 260-mile journey back home but those hardy souls who stayed got compensated for their troubles with the goal of the night, Rogers bending elegantly into Djordje Petrovic’s far corner.

By that time, though, the visitors were already on the receiving end of the biggest defeat in an EFL Cup semifinal. Conor Gallagher and Noni Madueke entered the fray in the second half determined to make an impression. The former drove to the byline to set up Palmer for his 11th of the season, amends firmly made for his off-finishing night in the first leg. Madueke was altogether more incisive than Mudryk had been, breezing down the right before rolling the ball into the bottom corner. 

Such free scoring has not been a frequent sight at this ground over recent months but under Pochettino the underlying metrics, particularly a healthy xG tally, have been pointing to a few more moments like tonight. They need only one more, likely in what would be an almighty test against Liverpool, to secure that most critical of items in this part of London, silverware.