Havertz sinks former club as Arsenal reaches English League Cup final by beating Chelsea

By Canadian Press on February 3, 2026.

What’s shaping up to be a banner season for Arsenal is going to include a trip to Wembley Stadium for the English League Cup final.

Arsenal held firm before scoring in stoppage time through Kai Havertz to beat visiting Chelsea 1-0 on Tuesday and seal a 4-2 victory on aggregate over its London rival.

Mikel Arteta’s team leads the Premier League by six points in its bid to become English champion for a first time since 2004, and also finished top of the Champions League standings after eight straight wins.

For good measure, Arsenal has advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup too.

Arsenal will play Manchester City or Newcastle in the March 22 final. City leads 2-0 heading into the second leg at home on Wednesday.

Much of the hard work was done last month in winning 3-2 at Stamford Bridge and the return match was mostly cagey.

Havertz, a former Chelsea player, had the final say by latching onto Declan Rice’s pass on a counterattack and rounding goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to slot home.

The finish wasn’t too dissimilar to the one which saw off Man City and clinched the Champions League title for Chelsea in 2021.

Arsenal will be looking for a third League Cup title, after 1987 and 1993. The club has been the runner-up six times, most recently to City in 2018.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Steve Douglas, The Associated Press

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