Tuesday night saw the start of the third round of the Capital One Cup as Aston Villa saw off their local rivals Birmingham City in a battling derby match, but two of the fiercest rivals from the English capital take centre stage this evening as Tottenham v Arsenal is the pick of the action. The North London Derby is always a fiery match with red cards, goals and controversy almost guaranteed and online bookmaker see Arsenal progressing tonight, but what is our expert’s top League Cup picks today?
Tottenham v Arsenal: 2.95 – 3.60 – 2.35
The third round of the Capital One Cup has had two showcase matches with the Second City Derby between Aston Villa and Birmingham City being the shining light on Tuesday night, but tonight’s top game is the North London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal. Both sides come into this first derby clash of the season in different form with Tottenham having finally gotten a handle on their poor start to the season with three successive wins, with the main thanks going to new signing Heung-Min Son who has three goals in two games, while Arsenal have seen three red cards, four goals conceded and just one goal scored in back to back losses in the Champions and Premier Leagues.
Tottenham are the more likely of these two sides to play a fuller strength side for this third round cup game, with Harry Kane aiming to keep his place as he aims for his first goal of the season, while Francis Coquelin will miss the game for Arsenal through injury and Arsene Wenger aims to rotate his side. Despite this the home team are missing Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Mousa Dembele all through injury too and we see this being a closely and fiercely contested derby game that will see both sides find the net, just like both of the meetings last season, before one side finds a second to see them through to round four. Back over 2.5 goals to be scored at White Hart Lane tonight at odds of 1.73 with Unibet.com.
Man United v Ipswich: 1.27 – 6.00 – 12.00
After a thrilling match at St. Mary’s Stadium at the weekend where they defeated Southampton 3-2 to move to second in the Premier League just two points behind a faltering Manchester City – who got back on track with a 4-1 win at Sunderland last night – Manchester United return to Old Trafford this evening looking to book a place in round four of the Capital One Cup against an Ipswich Town side that sits fifth in the second tier at this early stage of the season. It is the first meeting of the sides since Untied won 1-0 at Portman Road during the 2001/02 EPL season to see them continue unbeaten against The Tractor Men since 1994. Can Mick McCarthy’s men end this 21 year winless streak against one of the biggest names in this competition?
United boss Louis van Gaal is expected to make large changes to his starting XI from the match against Southampton at the weekend with Phil Jones, Andreas Pereira, James Wilson and Jesse Lingard all expected to kick off tonight, although after seeing a much changed side beaten 4-0 by League One MK Dons last season you can be sure that some first team regulars will retain their places too. McCarthy is likely to change his team for this clash too with him having an eye on the Championship as he looks to claim a second successive playoff place and, perhaps, go even better with automatic promotion to the Premier League. They did need extra time to see of Doncaster in the last round and even a changed United team will be much more difficult to beat so we see a comfortable home win in this one with youngster James Wilson – who has already scored four times for United – netting at least one in this clash. Back Wilson to score and United to win @ 2.75 in the Unibet Sportsbook.
Norwich v West Brom: 2.20 – 3.50 – 3.40
This all EPL clash is another Capital One Cup match this evening that is sure to see Alex Neil and Tony Pulis change their starting XI’s around as they look to give their fringe players the chance to shine and stake a claim for a place in the team for the Premier League. Both sides are level in the league having eight points from their six matches but it is the home side tonight that leads the two teams with a minus one goal difference seeing them one better off than the guests at Carrow Road this evening. Norwich have scored more goals with nine to four but their conceded amount of ten goals far outstrips the six against for The Baggies, so which will win out this evening?
The Canaries are likely to bring in defender Martin Olsson after injury while on-loan Congolese striker Dieumerci Mbokani is likely to make a first start after fleeting appearances in the league, while West Brom are believed to be starting Jonas Olsson, James Chester, Craig Gardner, Rickie Lambert and Callum McManaman for this match and both will feel that they can win to book their place in round four.
Four of the last six meetings between the sides have seen at least three goals, although both matches last season saw no goals from the home side as both ended in away victories with two or fewer goals netted. Tony Pulis will again be aiming for a clean sheet as he his West Brom sides have managed 14 in his 24 games at the club and this is likely to see a cagey match between these teams. However, with the changes taking place we believe that that both teams will make chances and find the net in this game on the East Coast, as the majority of the matches between the sides over the last four years have seen. Our money is on goals from both Norwich and West Brom at odds of 1.78 with Unibet.