This week’s midweek action comes courtesy of the last eight of the League Cup with three games tomorrow evening starting with a London Derby, Arsenal at home to Crystal Palace. Arsenal have won their last four league contests home and away against their opponents and as we know Cup games can bring out some shocks but Arsenal are expected to put a strong team out for a chance of some silverware. This will be the first clash as they will play each other again in the Premiership at Selhurst Park at the weekend.
Mikel Arteta’s knocked out two lower-tier sides in Bolton and Preston to progress this far while Palace had to see off Norwich, QPR and Aston Villa in their earlier rounds. Arsenal are coming on the back of a disappointing goalless draw at home to Everton at the weekend while Palace are coming off a 3-1 win against their M23 Derby rivals Brighton & Hove Albion . The overall head to head record over 55 previous encounters is 33 Arsenal wins, 16 Draws and 6 Crystal Palace wins.
The betting suggests that Arsenal will make it 4 wins on the bounce against Palace with ⅖ being offered, Palace 7/1 and The Draw 7/2.
Newcastle welcome Brentford to St James Park in the second match on Wednesday evening its not even two weeks since Brentford beat Newcastle 4-2 at the Gtech Stadium but there were different fortunes for both teams at the weekend. Newcastle hammering Leicester 4-0 after being on a four game winless run while Brentford lost 2-1 away at Chelsea.
The Magpies were dominant throughout over the Foxes registering 27 shots and 11 being on target. They remain in the bottom half of the league but one thing in Eddie Howe’s team favour is their performances in the EFL Cup so far, where they have beaten two in-form Premier League teams beating Forest at the City ground and Chelsea’s cup team up at St James Park.
It will have reached seven decades without a domestic trophy for Newcastle by the time the final comes around but Brentford are aiming for their first ever major honour, following a fantastic rise under Thoma Frank over the last half-decade.
They have already made their best start to a Premier League season despite losing at the weekend sitting just five points short of the top four heading towards the midway point of the season. Brentford Cup run in this cup came to a halt this time last season after losing over two legs to Chelsea who went on to be finalists and Frank will hope the same won’t happen again this time around.
Brentford got the better of Colchester United and Leyton Orient to reach the fourth round where Sheffield Wednesday awaited and although they won it had to go all the way with penalties splitting the two sides. Their away form needs to improve to trouble the home side here as they have only picked up one point away from home this season at struggling Everton.
With team news playing a big part in these cup game markets Newcastle are current around 4/7 with Brentford at 9/2 and the Draw at 17/5 .
Lastly of the Wednesday night games Southampton host Liverpool. Life after Russell Martin will begin for Southampton after the manager was sacked after a 5-0 thrashing at home to Spurs on Sunday. Simon Rusk will be taking interim charge for the time being.
It was a tough fixture list for Southampton during December but the manner of their defeats, especially at home to Chelsea and Spurs was ultimately Martins undoing. They are a cut adrift at the bottom and nine points from safety currently after their 13th defeat in 16 Premier League matches this season. Form in the cup has been their only positive under Martin scoring nine goals in wins against Cardiff City, Everton (penalties) and Stoke City.
Last season they were knocked out of the EFL Cup in the first round to Gillingham but they are now seeking a second semi-final appearance in three seasons. This will be a huge uphill task for the hosts though facing the current holders and Premier League leaders.
Liverpool’s new manager Arne Slot will be looking to replicate Jurgen Klopp who led Liverpool to two of the last three seasons EFL Cups and the Dutchman has breezed through the competition so far despite facing Premier League clubs. Both West Ham and Brighton were seen off despite heavily rotating their first eleven.
Liverpool are winless in their last two, more recently coming back to draw 2-2 with 10 men at home to Fulham after Andy Robertsons red card. Chelsea are only two points behind Liverpool in the Premiership now. Robertson will be suspended for the game and both Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk have both enjoyed rests in this competition so far Liverpool will still play a strong first eleven.
Southampton are currently 11/2, Liverpool 4/9 and the draw around 4/1 at the leading Non UK Gambling Sites.
The only Quarter-final match on Thursday is Tottenham at home to Man United and a chance to get to the last four is up for grabs.
Both teams enter the contest on a high after Spurs picking up three points after a five goal thrashing at Southampton and Man United getting two late goals at Man City to secure a win over their rivals.
Ange Postecoglou was coming under increased pressure following a disappointing run of just one win in eight games but a surprise 4-0 triumph at Man City and then 5-0 win at Southampton at the weekend looks like Spurs might have turned the corner.
Only high flying Chelsea (37) have scored more goals than Spurs (36) so far this season and the North London Club sit 10th in the table after 16 games, although they are only five points behind the top four.
Spurs look to reach the semi-finals for the third time in five years after defeating Man City 2-1 in the last round and if recent head to heads are anything to go by Spurs beat Man United 3-0 at Old Trafford when United were under the management of Erik ten Hag. The Red Devils can be confident of success in North London as they have won each of their last six EFL Cup ties away from home by an aggregate score of 14-1 beating both Chelsea and Man City in this run.
Mason Mount is a doubt, Luke Shaw remains in the treatment room and Amorim has a big decision to make whether to bring Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho after they were both dropped last weekend.
We can see there being goals in this Cup encounter but current odds for 90 mins are Spurs 7/5 Man United 17/10 and the Draw 27/10 at the leading American betting sites for UK players.
Good Luck with whatever way you decide to play the games.
