Capital One Cup draw throws up big capital contest at Arsenal

There is no doubt that Chelsea’s trip to play Arsenal is the pick of the fourth round ties in the Capital One Cup.

You get the feeling Arsene Wenger will have to field a slightly stronger side than he did in Arsenal’s penalty shoot-out win over West Brom, if the Frenchman wishes to get past Chelsea in the League Cup.

Whereas Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea reserves featured the likes of World Cup winners Juan Mata and Fernando Torres in their clinical 2-0 win over Swindon, a scarcely known 20-year-old German named Thomas Eisfeld was scoring on his full debut for Arsenal at the Hawthorns.

Unsurprisingly, both the London giants’ prices to land this piece of silverware have drifted out to 6/1 in light of this bumper tie.

Given Chelsea have won on four of their last six trips to the Emirates in all competitions though, losing only once, taking the Blues at 6/1 may be the one to plump for there.

Meanwhile, Manchester United’s reward for ejecting rivals Liverpool is a rather more appealing looking match-up at home to Norwich, which has understandably afforded the Red Devils favourites status to win the cup at 4/1.

Just behind United at 9/2 are Tottenham, whose own favourable home draw against Hull is a tie many would expect the Lillywhites to prevail comfortably in.

Newcastle’s hopes of ending the search for their first domestic cup silverware since 1955 has been dealt a blow after they drew Manchester City at St James’ Park, with the Magpies out at 18/1, while City’s chances of League Cup glory are rated at 5/1 by Ladbrokes.

Out of the trio of Championship flag-flyers, Leicester at 33/1 are given the best hope of a win from outside the top-tier after drawing Fulham at home.

Birmingham and Burnley at least have home ties too, against Stoke (25/1) and West Ham (20/1) respectively, though both second-tier clubs are deemed 50/1 shots.

Finally, manager-less Sunderland are priced at 25/1 despite a home draw against Southampton, with the Saints 14/1 to lift the trophy, who could just be the surprise of the prices.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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