Gilmour loan impact

Rudiger on the mark as Chelsea make light work of rivals Spurs

St Johnstone have recalled Charlie Gilmour from a loan spell with Alloa Athletic that has seen the young midfielder make “incredible” progression.

And Callum Davidson believes the former Arsenal and Norwich City man is ready to have an instant first team impact with the Perth club.

Gilmour dropped down two divisions to get regular gametime at the Indodrill Stadium.

Alloa manager Barry Ferguson believes the 22-year-old is a star in the making and the Saints boss is another member of the fan club.

“Charlie is coming back and we’re looking forward to getting going with him now,” said Davidson.

“The development in him the last three months with Alloa has been incredible and I have to credit Barry and his staff for that. I’ve seen it when he’s trained with us.

“His game has improved massively for getting experience of first team football so the loan has worked exactly as we hoped.

“We always knew Charlie was a good player.

“His pedigree coming out of Arsenal and playing in Holland was something we had looked at.

“But he needed games. He needed to get a run of playing football and Alloa gave him that. We have watched his games and have been really impressed.”

Saints are still in the market for one more central midfielder, with Hibs’ Melker Hallberg the latest to be identified.

But Davidson is convinced Gilmour will also be an asset for their relegation battle.

“He’s got size, he’s over six foot, and has a great range of passing so he will add something to the squad for the second half of the season. Charlie will be pushing for a start now because he’s shown he can play a run of games.

“His attitude and determination to play well has been evident. He was keen to get out and play.

“We talked about it and all credit to him and his agent. They both saw the benefits of it.

“Charlie is someone I think can go on to a higher level again so hopefully we can give him the platform to realise that potential.”

Chelsea have progressed to the Carabao Cup final after beating Tottenham 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night.

Their one-goal win, thanks to Antonio Rudiger’s 18th minute strike, gave Thomas Tuchel’s side a 3-0 aggregate victory over their London rivals.

It also means the Blues’ second trip to Wembley for a cup final during Tuchel’s tenure, and their fourth final overall.

Tottenham left Tanguy Ndombele out of their line-up for the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea, with captain Hugo Lloris named on the bench.

The French midfielder was booed by home supporters during the FA Cup game with Morecambe at the weekend as he took an age to leave the pitch when substituted and was not named in the matchday 18.

Pierluigi Gollini started in goal ahead of Lloris for the second successive game after his weekend outing in the FA Cup.

Chelsea, who led 2-0 from last week’s first leg, made five changes from the game at Stamford Bridge, with Timo Werner joining Romelu Lukaku in attack.

The decision to pick Gollini backfired as early as the 18th minute as Chelsea went ahead. The Italian came out to punch Mason Mount’s corner but got nowhere near it and the ball hit Antonio Rudiger and went in.

Tottenham thought they had a route back into the game seven minutes before the break when Andre Marriner awarded a penalty after Rudiger chopped down Pierreemile Hojbjerg.

However, VAR ruled the first contact came outside the area and changed the decision to a free kick on the edge of the area, which was missed.

Tottenham had another penalty ruled out 10 minutes after the restart when Marriner pointed to the spot after Lucas Moura went down under a challenge from Kepa Arrizabalaga.

But replays showed the goalkeeper won the ball and the referee had to change his decision again. Spurs’ night went from bad to worse as nine minutes later they endured more VAR misery when they had a goal ruled out for offside.

Hojbjerg won the ball back high up the pitch, but Harry Kane was marginally offside before he struck into an empty net.

n West Ham moved into the Premier League top four with a 2-0 win over Norwich City, who suffered their sixth consecutive defeat.

Tomas Soucek was missing from the West Ham squad to face Norwich. But full-back Aaron Cresswell returned after six weeks out with a back injury.

Milot Rashica kept his place for Norwich after scoring their FA Cup winner against Charlton.

West Ham took a deserved lead just before half-time when Jarrod Bowen turned in Vladimir Coufal’s cross.

Bowen made it 2-0 seven minutes from time.

Antonio Rudiger celebrates his winning goal.