Sarri’s rant rewarded, despair for Dier – 5 things we learned from Chelsea-Spurs

Chelsea reached the Carabao Cup final after beating Tottenham 4-2 on penalties after their two-legged semi-final ended 2-2 on aggregate.

Goals from N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard put the Blues on the way before Fernando Llorente’s second-half header sent the game to penalties, where Eric Dier and Lucas Moura missed for Spurs.

Here, Press Association Sport discusses five talking points from Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s impressive reaction

If Maurizio Sarri’s extraordinary attack on his own players after Chelsea’s defeat at Arsenal was designed to fire them up for this game then it worked a treat. Sarri accused his team of lacking motivation and having no leaders after the limp display at the Emirates, but they showed they have got something about them against the other half of north London with a dynamic first-half performance that set them on the way to Wembley. There were also definitely leaders on show in the shootout as all four of Chelsea’s penalty takers scored to take them through to the final.

Dier’s despair

A Bridge too far for Spurs

Overcoming Chelsea without the likes of the injured Harry Kane and Dele Alli was just too big an ask for Spurs in what has been a testing competition for them. They opened up by having to play in Milton Keynes where they beat Watford on penalties and then had to travel to West Ham in the next round just 48 hours after playing Manchester City in the Premier League. Their reward for that win was a trip to north London rivals Arsenal, where they won 2-0 before being pitted against Chelsea. They would have been confident of reaching the final after winning the first leg 1-0, but, having trailed 2-0 at half-time, did brilliantly to take the game to penalties. In the end they fell short.

Fans’ behaviour

There were again pre-match pleas from both clubs for their fans to behave after recent unsavoury incidents of discrimination and, for the most part, they were heeded. There were isolated, short-lived and relatively muted uses of the ‘Y’ word by some Tottenham supporters, less regular than in many of their matches. There was nothing in response from Chelsea supporters as the night passed off without incident.

Sarri’s first final