The EFL Cup fourth round draw was revealed on Wednesday and there are some mouth-watering clashes to look forward to on 24th October. Manchester United will get the chance to regain revenge for their 2-1 Premier League defeat against bitter rivals Manchester City at Old Trafford while Liverpool face Spurs at Anfield in what’s sure to be another classic encounter between the two.
West Ham, who were fortunate to progress to this stage after scraping past Accrington at the Olympic Stadium, have been rewarded with an even tougher home tie against London rivals Chelsea after they came from 2-0 down to beat Leicester 4-2 in extra-time. The one other all Premier League tie is between Southampton and Sunderland at St Mary’s.
Arsenal were handed arguably the best draw of all the Premier League clubs at home against Reading, while Hull face a tricky trip to Ashton Gate against Bristol City. The two other ties are all Championship affairs between Newcastle and Preston and Leeds and Norwich.
This weekend’s Premier League action gets underway at lunchtime with Manchester United facing last season’s champions Leicester at Old Trafford. United hold the upper-hand in this corresponding fixture having won seven of the last ten, including five of the last six, but the majority of these fixtures were played prior to 2004. The two teams have met five times in all competitions since then and all five games ended with Both Teams scoring and three ended with more than 2 goals scored.
From a betting perspective the backing Both Teams to score looks like the safest option to me.
The other big Premier League game on Saturday is the London derby tea-time kick-off between Arsenal and Chelsea at the Emirates. The Gunners have only won two of the last ten corresponding fixtures and none of the last five, drawing three, and five of the last six Premier League fixtures overall ended with less than 3 goals scored. Both teams statistics this season suggest there will be goals in this fixture however, recent competitive encounters suggest otherwise and it’s more than likely history will repeat itself so backing the draw or laying Arsenal is worth considering from a betting/trading perspective.