Lovingly known as the “mickey mouse cup”, a trophy that
teams only pursue when they’ve got nothing else left to play for, and somehow,
it’s found a sponsor for yet another year. Credit where credit’s due to Capital
One for fronting up so that we can have another round of midweek fixtures,
although the Capital One Cup is about as bad as it gets in terms of embarrassment.
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| Manchester United have enjoyed the League Cup of late and could well be celebrating once again |
With so many teams not caring for the trophy, one would be
inclined to think that it’s best to look outside the established “Big six” and
look for some value, but recent results tell us differently. Since 2000, 9 of
the winners have come from a select group of four teams – Manchester United,
Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham – and with three of those wins coming since
2006, Manchester United look to be the value of the Premier League giants at
9/1.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side are not impervious to an upset or
two in this competition - Coventry won at Old Trafford a few years back and
last season Crystal Palace did likewise – but barring that they have a strong
record in this trophy (100 match wins in this competition - only five clubs
have won more) and their attacking strength in depth may give them the edge.
This will be the last thing on their list of targets but you get an idea of the
strength in depth that United have when Nick Powell, Alex Buttner, and David de
Gea may play against Newcastle despite Tottenham coming to Old Trafford this
weekend, while a front four of listed strikers – Rooney, Hernandez, Wellbeck
and Van Persie – is surely going to result in at least one or two of them
playing while the likes of Antonio Valencia regularly got games in this
competition last season. In defence Phil Jones and Chris Smalling may get an
outing or two and considering the heavy rotation that other sides will take,
they look to have very strong claims of going all the way this year.
After reaching three League Cup finals in four years Chelsea's recent record in the League Cup has been surprisingly poor,
having failed to make it to the quarter-final stage for the last four seasons
following defeats to Burnley, Blackburn, Liverpool and Newcastle. However this
time around their squad strength may well force them through to the latter stages
of the competition after the influx of midfield talent during the summer. Cahill,
Terry, Bertrand, Ramires, Romeu, Mata, Torres and Moses are all starting
tonight’s first round tie against Wolves and while it’s not likely that the
side will be that strong through the rounds, Cesar Azpilicueta, Marko Marin and
Lucas Piazon are the sort of names that can come in and it’s a sign of intent
that Roberto Di Matteo’s naming a team of that strength just a few days before
a trip to an unbeaten Arsenal side. With the luck of the draw on their side,
they look to be live runners despite the Club World Cup in December threatening
to change their plans.
Arsenal are known for
finding gems in this competition but that strategy ironically has prevented
them from winning it, and they’ve got less strength in depth than ever this
time around. Expect to see some top players emerge through the campaign, but
one of the bigger teams may have more firepower like Manchester City did when
taking vantage of a naïve performance at the Emirates last year.
City themselves have the strongest all round squad of any
side in England and may have diverted more attention towards their semi-final
with Liverpool (who were taking it very seriously last season) thanks to an extremely congested fixture list -
with five Premier League fixtures and a Manchester derby double all in one
month surrounding their semi final clash.
However the fact that Toure, Rodwell, Milner, Barry,
Kolarov, Tevez, and Balotell are in a side which has been completely replace since
Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal shows the strength in depth that they have, so
despite being away after every single round of the competition (and with some tricky
sides too in that run) they have to be hugely respected, although 6/1 is short
for a competiton that won’t be high on the list.
Liverpool were hugely deserving winners last season, getting
the reward that they deserved for going full pelt at the competition last year –
they were drawn away in every round and beat Manchester City and Chelsea on
their way towards the cup – but with their poor start to the League this year
their side will be nowhere near as strong and there are better options. With
the Premier League so competitive this year, nobody else makes any real appeal
for this with the competition so low on the priority list until late on.
Advice
2 pts Manchester United (9/1 general)
1 pt Chelsea (8/1 Stan James)
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