EFL Cup Last 16 Best Bets & Preview

Jose Mourinho questioned the worth of the EFL Cup after his side’s 4-1 victory over Burton Albion, but he nonetheless played a pretty strong side in that tie with the likes of Rashford, Martial and Mata all starting. The Portuguese has won the competition four times, including last term, so we expect him to take it seriously. Swansea have eased past MK Dons and Reading so far, but this will of course be a much tougher test. They’re generally pretty strong when hosting the lesser sides under Clement, but they’ve lost by an aggregate of 11-1 in three home league games against Big Six opponents with the Englishman at the helm – including a 4-0 defeat against Utd in their opening home game this season. They were just 1-0 down at the break in that one and in fact nine of the 11 goals they conceded across these games came in the second half. Utd have also scored three second-half goals in 4-0 victories over Everton and West Ham this season, as they’ve looked like the Utd sides of old that were particularly strong at the back-end of games.

The Gunners continue to struggle away from the Emirates but at home they’ve won each of their six games across all competitions, conceding just one goal in their last five there. The likes of Sanchez and Giroud lined up against Doncaster in the last round and the Gunners have enough depth in their squad to outclass Norwich, but we think they’ll be made to work hard for their victory, as they were against Doncaster. The Canaries are unbeaten in seven in the Championship prior to their trip to Ipswich on Sunday, conceding just two goals in this time as Daniel Farke has them very well organised. They aren’t prolific at the other end of the pitch as they’ve managed only six goals in that time, and so we expect them to make themselves tough to break down. However, the Gunners should eventually be able to do just that and so we’re backing a home win and Under 2.5 Goals.

The League Cup was Palace’s only solace in their difficult start to the season and now that they’re on the board with their spectacular win over Chelsea they’ll hope to kick on further in this competition. They travel to a Bristol City side that finished 17th in the Championship last term and look to have taken advantage of a pretty easy fixture list to start the season – they’ve already played seven bottom-eight sides. Palace have won three of four unbeaten games against teams outside the Premier League in domestic cup competition since the start of last season, whilst they also beat both Spurs and Southampton on the road on their way to the 2016 FA Cup final. As outsiders against lower league opposition, they look like a great bet – we’re siding with Roy Hodgson’s men Draw No Bet.