LONDON: Diogo Jota stepped up in Mohamed Salah’s absence with two goals on Thursday to lead Liverpool to a 2-0 victory at Arsenal and into a League Cup final against Chelsea.

While Liverpool coped with Salah’s continued stay at the African Cup of Nations with Egypt and Sadio Mane’s with Senegal, the rapid return of Thomas Partey after Ghana’s early exit backfired for Arsenal.

Partey came on in the 74th minute just before Jota’s second goal but was then booked in the 86th for a late challenge on Neco Williams and again in the 90th for a lunge on Fabinho. The midfielder was dismissed hours after landing from Cameroon and he will now be suspended for Sunday’s Premier League match against Burnley.

The semi-final was locked at 0-0 following the first leg at Anfield last week until Jota scored in the 19th with a low finish through two defenders and past goalkeeper Aaron Ram­sdale. When Jota dinked the ball over Ramsdale in the second half, the goal was initially ruled out until VAR overturned the offside.

The Portugal forward now has 14 goals in 27 appearances this season for Liverpool surpassing his tally of 13 in his first campaign after joining from Wolver­hampton Wanderers in 2020.

“Diogo Jota’s on fire,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said. “We were convinced when he arrived at the club he would help us massively. Since he is here he has made another step, he has turned into a really world-class striker.

“The mood in the dressing room is over the moon. The boys were exceptional. The first half Arsenal were lively and so were the crowd but we calmed it down. We scored two wonderful goals.”

Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020, are now into their first domestic final on Feb 27 since being denied the League Cup by Manchester City in 2016.

Liverpool, like Chelsea, are still in the Champions League and FA Cup. It’s just the Premier League title that’s increasingly out of sight with second-placed Liverpool 11 points behind Manchester City and Chelsea a further point behind.

But it will be a second successive season without a trophy for 2020 FA Cup winners Arsenal, who are already out of the FA Cup, is sixth in the Premier League and aren’t playing in Europe this season.

We are really disappointed but we played against a top side. We had big moments in both halves and we have to score,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. We had chances and were pushing for the game but we have to convert if we were too beat a team like Liverpool.”

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2022