The ninth round of the English Premier League might have just ended, but the EFL Cup, currently known as the Carabao Cup, awaits tomorrow! Who can progress past the round of 16?
Arsenal – Leeds United
Arsenal welcome Leeds United at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners are going into the match on the back of a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa on Friday, while Leeds only drew 1-1 with Wolverhampton on Saturday. Arsenal are well known for their FA Cup successes, but as far as the EFL Cup goes, they actually won it only twice, the last of which was in 1993!
Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League trophy this year are basically non-existent, and with the lack of any European football, this might be their only chance to win a trophy this season. EFL Cup is usually a time for the young talents to show their skills and fight for a place in the A-team. Marcelo Bielsa’s team won’t be easy to overcome, but Arsenal’s hungry younglings should manage in the end. Expect Gabriel Martinelli and Folarin Balogun to start for Arsenal and wreak havoc on Leeds’ defence.
Neither side will be at full strength, be it because of injuries or simply because of the busy schedule, but we think Arsenal will find their way into the quarter-finals in the end.
Chelsea – Southampton
Chelsea are dominating the Premier League at the moment and they will have a chance to show more of their offensive finesse tomorrow against Southampton. The Blues actually beat Southampton 3-1 at the beginning of October and we predict a very similar result here as well.
And that is despite the fact that Chelsea are sure to miss Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, and Christian Pulisic, possibly even N’Golo Kante. Chelsea’s reserves are simply so deep that they won’t even miss them. Saul Niguez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Hakim Ziyech strike us as the standouts who are likely to start the game.
QPR – Sunderland
Last EFL Cup bout tomorrow features Championship side Queens Park Rangers and League One side Sunderland. Neither are in top form right now, but QPR have way more quality in their players which should lead to them to a close win.
The last time these two met was in 2018 and QPR won 1-0. That was back when Sunderland were still in the Championship. They lost a lot of players since then and they were never really able to recover.
