Chelsea boss Antonio Conte could recall Thibaut Courtois for EFL Cup semi-final against Arsenal

Back between the sticks: Courtois missed Saturday's draw at Carrow Road
Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Simon Johnson9 January 2018

Antonio Conte is considering recalling first-choice goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal on Wednesday.

The Chelsea coach has picked back-up keeper Willy Caballero for every round so far as well as for the FA Cup clash at Norwich on Saturday.

Caballero was aware that the domestic cup competitions provided his best opportunity of first-team football, barring injury to Courtois, when he joined as a free agent from Manchester City in the summer.

But with Arsenal set to put out a full-strength side at Stamford Bridge, Conte is thinking about whether to pick Courtois instead. The Belgium keeper impressed against Arsene Wenger’s side in the League last week, making superb saves to secure a 2-2 draw. And Conte turned to Courtois in the latter stages of the FA Cup last season, when they reached the final.Previous No2 Asmir Begovic played the first three rounds but Courtois was picked once the Blues faced stronger opposition from the quarter- finals onwards. Conte is planning to select a strong XI having made nine changes for the 0-0 draw at Norwich.

The Italian is boosted by the news that Eden Hazard is fully fit having recovered from the calf injury which ruled him out of the trip to Carrow Road. He has been training without any problems for the past few days.

Meanwhile, Chelsea target Leon Bailey admits he wants to move to the club but expects to have to wait until the summer.

Bayer Leverkusen are determined not to sell the winger, 20, this month as they attempt to qualify for the Champions League.

Bailey said: “Basically England is still my dream.

“And if I keep working hard, I’m sure it will work some day.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in