The quarterfinals of the Carabao Cup present a clear pathway to Wembley and a chance for silverware for the leading contenders. Three heavyweights stand out as favourites, while Premier League challengers and a League One side aim to upset the balance.<\/p>\n
Cardiff City have a reputation for overperforming in this competition. The Welsh side, who were in the Championship when they reached the 2011\u201312 final via a favourable run of fixtures, pushed Liverpool to penalties in the showpiece before suffering heartbreak. Now fighting to escape League One, the Carabao Cup has not been a distraction; Swindon Town, Cheltenham, Burnley and Wrexham have all been discarded en route to the last eight. Their reward is a visit from Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have made life difficult for themselves in cup ties away to Lincoln City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Enzo Maresca should name a fairly strong team for the trip to Wales. If the Italian selects even a handful of regular starters, they should conquer Cardiff with little fuss. The Bluebirds will be keen to see a much-changed Chelsea teamsheet on Tuesday, offering hope of a surprise result, but a convincing defeat is the most likely outcome. Prediction: Cardiff 1\u20133 Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Manchester City arrive brimming with confidence and represent a stern test for Brentford. Pep Guardiola’s men have claimed victory in five successive matches and, after their 2\u20131 win over Real Madrid, they breezed past Crystal Palace on the road last weekend. City have won the trophy four times under Guardiola and dominated the competition between 2018 and 2021, though they have not progressed beyond the last eight since. Brentford possess attacking options in Igor Thiago, Kevin Schade and Dango Ouattara, but an alarming away record in the league \u2014 seven defeats from eight \u2014 undermines their hopes. Prediction: Man City 3\u20130 Brentford.<\/p>\n
Newcastle, who lifted the trophy last season, face Fulham. Eddie Howe’s side beat Fulham 2\u20131 at St James’ Park this term with Bruno Guimar\u00e3es’s last-gasp strike in October. Fulham, inspired by Harry Wilson at times, can threaten, but Newcastle should prevail at home. Prediction: Newcastle 2\u20131 Fulham.<\/p>\n
Arsenal host Crystal Palace a week later because Palace are in the Europa Conference League. Palace have enjoyed two days out at Wembley in the past seven months, conquering Man City in the FA Cup final and beating Liverpool in the Community Shield. Arsenal beat Palace 1\u20130 on home soil earlier this season and, despite Palace’s capacity to defy the odds, the Gunners should reach the semis. Prediction: Arsenal 2\u20130 Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carabao Cup quarters: Cardiff-Chelsea, Man City-Brentford, Newcastle-Fulham, Arsenal-Palace preview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1067,190,1056,194],"tags":[1305,853,1066],"class_list":["post-5137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-carabao-cup","category-chelsea","category-man-city","category-newcastle-united","tag-bench-selection","tag-bruno-guimaraes","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}