Arsenal share a goal-less draw with Chelsea in Carabao Cup semi Final first leg.

Arsenal share a goal-less draw with Chelsea in Carabao Cup semi Final first leg.

Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot? It was forever thus for both Arsenal and Chelsea. Hadn't they met before somewhere some time? Their paths have definitely crossed before. You must remember surely. Oh yes! It was last week in a brand New Year crackerjack of a Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium where local differences were settled with an honours even 2-2 draw.

Once again these North and West London rivals were thrown together by a fortunate twist of fate because it seems that both Arsenal and Chelsea get quite a private thrill when they meet each other under any circumstances. But when it comes to Cup competitions of any description both can hardly contain their glee. This was rather like yet another family re-union where two old brothers suddenly meet up at a party and look genuinely happy to see each other. Sometimes there are rifts and rumpuses but last night it was all good natured bonhomie and hearty pats on the back. No problem at all.

At Stamford Bridge two footballing aristocracies shared a very pleasant evening in a West London gathering of the great and good. Here in the very luxurious Chelsea Village and Harbour, both Chelsea and Arsenal swapped familiar stories, shook hands amiably and decided to do it all over again in the second leg at the Emirates without a scratch on each other. There are times when you have to accept the status quo, resign yourself to whatever fate holds and then find the ultimate solution.

In last night's 0-0 draw in the Carabao Cup semi final, Chelsea and Arsenal were engaged in one of the most thought provoking  of matches. It was rather like watching two very gifted chess grandmasters staring at the board, trying desperately to anticipate each other's next move and then taking full advantage of that bishop and the queen. It could have been all over had you shifted that castle where it can do maximum damage but then you suddenly discover that your opponent has already thought of that. So you move those pawns out in a kind of pincer attacking formation and before you can bat an eye lid it had to be check mate.

Frustratingly both Arsenal and Chelsea had almost subconsciously resolved before this game that footballing poker had to be the only option. Both teams very rarely showed their hand and this was a match of cat and mouse tactics, secrecy and stealth with nobody giving anything away. It was one of those cagey Cup ties where both sides commit themselves wholeheartedly to blanket defence and no quarter is given.

This was a match of stifling containment where both Arsenal and Chelsea seemed quite content to cancel each other out in the hope that somebody takes the decisive initiative eventually. In fact this match reminded you of those slow, slow, quick quick Olympic cycling races where the riders gently pedal away around the steep banks of a velodrome before sprinting impressively towards the finishing line. But Sir Chris Hoy may have turned his head away from this sluggish spectacle.

In the end both the Blues and Gunners were just grateful to have finished the game in one piece. Arsenal, for their part, were still recovering from that dramatic FA Cup third round exit at the City Ground where Nottingham Forest were, allegedly, given one penalty too many and penalty takers were slipping and sliding before illegally scoring. Arsenal have had a wretched time of it and just when they thought they'd seen the back of their mini crisis Chelsea came along and made things worse.

Admittedly Arsenal did survive last night's footballing assault course and will look forward to the second leg in a couple of weeks time with a fresh focus and a much clearer mind. But at times during the second half Arsenal were clinging on to the hand rails and only just keeping afloat. Whenever Arsenal do hit that rather unsettling bump in the road there always seems to be a safety net. Chelsea though, were in no mood for sympathy and understanding since they too were on the receiving end of a demoralising FA Cup Final defeat by Arsenal last year. A case of what goes around comes around.

Still this was a good natured Carabao Cup first leg and for the regular Stamford Bridge faithful this was as good as it'll probably get. In fact it could have been a whole lot better had Chelsea taken some of the goal scoring chances they'd so meticulously created. In the second half Chelsea moved the ball around with much more speed and accuracy than Arsenal while always keeping an eagle eye out for a quick smash and grab act. Arsenal though, successfully crowded out Chelsea with a red barbed wire and the blue Chelsea cavalry held fire before launching more careful and calculated attacks.

But this was never likely to be a free flowing, high scoring Cup tie and what we had instead was a tug of war contest where both heave and pull at the rope before flopping to the ground in sheer exhaustion. Occasionally during the first half Arsenal gave one or two fleeting reminders of their almost natural short passing game. For the first half hour or so it was like living in some passing paradise, red shirts quickly interacting with each other in the closest proximity. The ball almost seemed to have some electromagnetic force. Arsenal were spinning, rotating and then weighing up their passes knowing full well that the ball would invariably end up at the feet of a red shirt.

At the heart of some of their best movements was Jack Wilshere, now appointed as Arsenal captain for the night and there could have been few more deserving recipients of  that honour. Here against Chelsea he floated and hovered around the centre of the pitch, drifting effortlessly through the game as if quite possibly going through the motions at times but nonetheless always available for the vital pass. With what looks like a deceptively low centre of gravity Wilshere always looks in command and is rarely prone to clumsy fallibility.

Last night Wilshere occupied that very deep lying attacking midfield role that he seems to embrace with open arms. Wilshere was studious, always thinking, always aware and sensitive to events around him. His was a beautifully measured approach, a player of wit, touch and vision, a man with, quite possibly, England and a World Cup on his mind but wholly concentrated on the immediate task in hand. You  find yourself wondering what exactly might be going through the mind of England manager Gareth Southgate's mind.

For the last couple of years, Wilshere's career has been stalled by long term injuries, a trip to the seaside at Bournemouth and all manner of speculations and private distractions. The moral majority may be still mumbling and muttering their concerns but the fact is that Wilshere may have to be on his best behaviour. You know what those Russians are like. Very strict and disciplined. So Wilshere's nocturnal activities  may have to be cut out altogether. Recently though he does seem to have achieved a renewed maturity which does bode well for the trip to Russia during the summer. 

Here are though on the domestic front, Wilshere and Granit Xhaka formed a robust midfield alongside Hector Bellerin on the overlap. Arsenal looked well balanced as a team but still seemed slightly groggy and punch drunk after their Forest expedition. Maybe they couldn't find a clearing in between the trees. Still for most of the first half  Arsenal, electrified by the young and thrusting Ainsley Maitland Niles on the other flank to Bellerin, began to up the ante with positive runs into the Chelsea half.

Then after the match had progressed deep into the second half it became abundantly clear that Arsenal were under the weather and far from the spritely team who had put five past Everton earlier on in the season, before engaging in fun and games with both Liverpool and Manchester United. The defensive hinges often looked in need of oiling as Arsenal were caught dithering and dawdling in their own penalty area. At times Cech, the Arsenal keeper looked as if he was still playing in his school playground as the ball flew across his penalty area with casual abandon.

By the second half Chelsea became totally dominant and much more assertive than they had been during the first. It was as if Chelsea manager Antonio Conte had given his players a stern lecture such was his team's greater sense of adventure. Conte is a very emotional and passionate man but it is hard to imagine him breaking any crockery in the dressing room. But by the hour Chelsea had changed out of all recognition and the thunder on Conte's face during the first half had now assumed a much sunnier appearance.

Eden Hazard, who is by and far away one of the most attractive looking players in the Premier League, now burst out of his somewhat introverted shell and made the second half his. Picking up the ball in all areas of the pitch Hazard, with that lovely swivel of his hips, cut in from the flanks and then delicately completed a full circle before launching  an irresistible surge towards the Arsenal penalty area. On a number of occasions it was almost as if Arsenal were racing to catch an early morning rush hour train. Then the guard on the platform held up the flag and the 7.38 at Euston had disappeared into the distance.

Alongside Hazard was the consistently influential N'Golo Kante, a marvellously effective and intelligent midfield player full of ideas and imagination. Kante was the bricklayer and hod carrier at the same time, breaking up all of Arsenal's pretty decorations in the middle of the pitch and then carrying the ball forward with purpose and conviction. Kante was the creative engine room, pistons pumping, legs charging furiously across Stamford Bridge as if his life depended on it.

With Victor Moses finally emerging in the second half after a flat first. Moses began to run daringly at Mustafi, Holding and Koscielny in Arsenal's now tiring defence. Then Cesc Fabregas, a former Arsenal player, started to spray a pleasant succession of long and sweetly weighted passes behind the Arsenal back four. For Fabregas though the years are now passing and now in his 30s, the football brain may be active and alert but how much longer has the Spanish playmaker got before the body tells him a different story?

Marco Alonso and the Dane Andreas Christensen were always mobile, swift and ever ready to support an attack that were now biting their teeth into this League Cup semi final. OK then it's the Carabao Cup but you wondered what the founder of the competition Alan Hardaker would have thought of his creation in its present incarnation. Both Alonso and Christensen were full time members of the full back union, bustling and hustling for possession, lunging at well timed tackles and repeatedly disrupting a battery of Arsenal counter attacks.

In the end though both teams had more or less worked each other out before the floodlights had come on. Before the game there was a most unusual reception for the players as they stepped out onto the pitch. The said floodlights began to flash and flicker in some very dramatic entrance of the gladiators. By the end of the match Arsenal and Chelsea looked stage struck and then the lights seemed to go off permanently.

With the second leg of this Carabao Cup still to follow, it was time to review our assessments of the League Cup as a viable force for good. To some if not others it still remains way down the pecking order, an insignificant side show with little to recommend it. When Norwich City beat Rochdale in one of the earliest editions of the League Cup Final the common belief at the time was that only the lower League teams seemed ideally suited to this allegedly inferior Cup competition.

In recent years the little tiddlers of Bradford City actually reached Wembley in the League Cup Final before being overwhelmed by Swansea. Still as Chelsea and Arsenal left the pitch last night you began to wonder whether the likes of Norwich, Rochdale, Bradford and Swansea would ever grace the Wembley green acres ever again. Occasionally football has the most unexpected surprise up its sleeve.  Maybe one day. We can but hope.