Sanchez benched as Manchester City rumours swirl

Alexis Sanchez was restricted to a substitute appearance in the first leg of Arsenal's League Cup semi-final meeting with Chelsea amid talk that the Chilean is bound for Manchester City.

Related - De Bruyne: Sanchez will be valuable at City 'when he comes'

In attack, Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck busied themselves behind Alexandre Lacazette until Sanchez replaced the French striker after 66 minutes. Mesut Ozil missed out altogether with "a slight knee injury," and The Independent's Miguel Delaney believes the midfielder is also a doubt for Sunday's match in Bournemouth.

(Courtesy: @Arsenal)

Konstantinos Mavropanos was a surprise inclusion in Wednesday's matchday squad following his January move from PAS Giannina. Some Arsenal fans may have wished the 20-year-old Greek defender was fast-tracked into the first XI given the struggles of Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, and Rob Holding against Chelsea in a 2-2 league draw last week.

The host, meanwhile, made nine changes to the team that started in Saturday's 0-0 draw at Norwich City in the FA Cup third round. Antonio Conte's midfield core in a 3-5-2 system was N'Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas, and Danny Drinkwater. New signing Ross Barkley watched from the stands in a break from his bid to regain match fitness after long-term hamstring problems.