Good evening and welcome to Sports Mole's live text coverage of the EFL Cup semi-final first leg between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley.
The hosts are bidding for a first piece of silverware since beating Chelsea in the final of this competition in 2008, while Mauricio Pochettino is still yet to win a trophy in his managerial career.
The same is true of Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri, whose first two defeats as manager of the club came at this stadium, including a Premier League loss at the hands of tonight's opponents.
Make sure you do not miss a moment of the action courtesy of our minute-by-minute updates below.
The semi-finals get underway today and these two sides are doing battle to return back to this very stadium for the final and a shot at the first piece of silverware of the season. The Premier League fixture between these London rivals produced talking points aplenty, so hopefully we are in for more of the same tonight!
Let's start with a look at the team news...
SUBS: Loris, Davies, Foyth, Walker-Peters, Skipp, Lamela, Llorente
SUBS: Caballero, Zappacosta, Ampadu, Luiz, Kovacic, Pedro, Giroud
We'll start with the home side, who name pretty much all of their big-hitters in the starting lineup tonight, including the in-form duo of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min.
Son has arguably been Tottenham's most important player of the last few weeks, but he will be unavailable after this weekend's match against Manchester United as he jets off to the Asian Cup. Spurs are sure to miss him considering how good he has been for them of late.
Both Kane and Son were on the scoresheet when these two sides faced off at this very ground in November, but the man Chelsea may be most fearful of tonight is Dele Alli. The England midfielder has scored six times against Chelsea in his career - more than he has managed against any other opponent - and also have four goals in his last five League Cup appearances for the club.
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Aside from that selection, this is a team which you would expect to see in a Premier League game as Spurs go all out for the victory which would take them halfway to the final of the competition, and another step closer to that elusive trophy.
Llorente will have no doubt about his place in the pecking order behind Kane, but he may feel a fraction hard done by to miss out after scoring a hat-trick on Friday night, while Serge Aurier is absent entirely despite scoring twice. In all, there are seven changes from that Tranmere win.
Bayern Munich are understood to have made a number of attempts to sign him, while Juventus have also been mentioned as possible suitors, but for now he remains a Chelsea player and he keeps his place in the team after provided both assists in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
That will leave Eden Hazard to lead the line once again - a position he has previously admitted that he does not like to play but one he is expected to carry out a lot more often should Chelsea not bring in a new striker this month. There is no doubting the Belgian's quality, but he always seems to play better out wide.
He will be supported by Willian - who has returned from a hamstring injury - while Sarri does have the options of Pedro and Giroud - also both back from injury - on the bench.
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Barkley gets the nod tonight as one of only three players to keep their place from the FA Cup win over Forest at the weekend. The eight changes all see usual first-teamers return to the fold.
Spurs in particular will be feeling very confident coming into this match having already swept Chelsea aside here this season, but they so often seem to fall just short when they get to within touching distance of silverware.
Only six points separate Mauricio Pochettino's side from leaders Liverpool now, while they are just two points adrift of Man City, and they will very much be looking up the table rather than over their shoulders at Chelsea right now.
Pochettino's side have won 14 of their last 17 outings across all competitions, losing two and drawing the other away at Barcelona, and that includes six wins from their last seven games too.
Spurs have scored a whopping 22 goals in their last five outings - including five or more in a game on three separate occasions - while so far in 2019 they have netted 10 goals without reply. They will undoubtedly find things tougher tonight, but they are a team in very good form.
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Spurs have seen off Premier League opposition every step of the way so far, beating Watford on penalties after a 2-2 draw, overcoming West Ham 3-1 and then, most impressively, beating Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium last month.
Since then, Spurs have played in six major semi-finals, but the four of those which have been against Premier League opposition have all ended in defeat, with their only wins in that time coming against League One Sheffield United and Championship Burnley.
Indeed, Pochettino is not just waiting for his first trophy as Spurs boss, he is also without one in his managerial career so far, despite making such impressive progress in charge of the North London outfit.
Nonetheless, the Italian has earned plenty of plaudits but no actual trophies in his managerial career so far, making him and Pochettino the only two top-six bosses yet to get their hands on a major honour.
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Worryingly for today, though, half of those defeats have come on this very ground, with that Community Shield loss to Man City being followed by an 18-match unbeaten run before they were undone by Tottenham here in the Premier League on November 24.
It is a statistic which probably has not even registered with Chelsea, but if they do fall to defeat then they at least need to make sure that it is a narrow one to give them a fighting chance in the second leg at Stamford Bridge later this month.
Whereas Tottenham are still considered outsiders in the title race, Chelsea are very much considered in the top-four race with only three points now separating them from fifth-placed Arsenal after they were held by Southampton in their last league game.
Away from home, the Blues have won their last three and 10 of 14 outings across all competitions this season, although it is a different story with the clean sheets having kept just one in their last six matches on the road.
That solitary win inside 90 minutes did come this season, though, and it was an impressive one too as Chelsea came from behind to inflict a first defeat of the campaign on Liverpool at Anfield, helped by a moment of magic from Hazard.
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The Blues tend to fare better when playing the first leg away from home, progressing from four of the five ties where that has been the case, despite winning only one of those away first legs.
This is a difficult one to call with both managers having named such strong teams. Spurs have the home advantage, which proved important in the Premier League tie, and while Chelsea are more than capable of winning this game, we are going to side with the hosts once again.
SPORTS MOLE SAYS: Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea
Pochettino's side went on to win 3-1, making it back-to-back triumphs over Chelsea by that scoreline having also run out 3-1 victors at Stamford Bridge in April when Eriksen and Alli (2) sealed a win from behind.
Indeed, another win tonight would see them register three successive victories over their London rivals for the first time since a run of five in their glory days between March 1961 and September 1963.
This is also the third time that they have faced each other in the semi-final of this competition too - after 1971-72 and 2001-02 - with Arsenal vs. Spurs the only fixture to have been played more often at this stage.
TOTTENHAM STARTING XI: Gazzaniga; Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Rose; Winks, Sissoko; Eriksen, Dele, Son; Kane
CHELSEA STARTING XI: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho, Barkley; Willian, Hazard, Hudson-Odoi
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⚽️ Harry Kane is the first player in Tottenham's history to score 20 goals in all competitions in 5 successive seasons pic.twitter.com/lHV99qlols— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) January 8, 2019
It has been an even contest for the most part and the difference so far has been a VAR call, so there is still everything to play for in the second 45 minutes.
There was no doubt about the foul, but the linesman's flag had initially ruled Kane offside. However, after a review from the VAR they deemed the Spurs striker onside, meaning that the foul became relevant. From there, Kane tucked his spot kick into the bottom corner.
The second came with the final action of the half when Hudson-Odoi's cross took a big deflection which sent it looping over the keeper. Gazzaniga reacted well, though, to claw it against the inside of the post and Spurs survived by the skin of their teeth.
Spurs may also want a bigger cushion, but they know that anything other than a win will hand the advantage to Chelsea at the halfway stage of this tie.
4 - Olivier Giroud has been directly involved in a goal in four of his last seven substitute appearances at Wembley (3 goals, 1 assist). Impact?— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 8, 2019
Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot - via an assist from VAR - but this tie is far from over and Chelsea will feel that they are capable of overturning the one-goal deficit when the two sides meet in the second leg later this month.
Thank you very much for joining Sports Mole for tonight's match as Spurs edge past Chelsea to gain a slender advantage at the halfway stage of this EFL Cup semi-final. I will leave you with our match report, and be sure to stick around for reaction too.
From me, though, it is goodbye for now!