Chelsea and Leicester serve up a belter, Arsenal and Liverpool cruise through and Everton and Bournemouth crash out in a dramatic night of EFL Cup third round action.
Leicester 2 Chelsea 4 (AET)
A good old-fashioned cup tear-up became the tie of the night at the King Power, with Chelsea coming from two goals down to win in extra time.
Both managers shuffled their packs but resisted the temptation to blood youngsters and the result was a high-paced and highly dramatic match.
Shinji Okazaki (5.8), the fall guy when Claudio Ranieri opts for two up front, reminded his manager of what he has to offer by scoring twice in the first half.
Andy King (4.8) provided an assist, as a Chelsea defence containing both David Luiz (6.0) and debutant Marcos Alonso (5.9) looked all at sea.
But a Gary Cahill (6.0) header from a Cesc Fabregas (7.1) cross just before half-time changed the tone of the tie and when Cesar Azpilicueta (6.0) volleyed home a spectacular equaliser after the break, the visitors smelled blood.
Diego Costa (10.0) and then Eden Hazard (10.0) were introduced as Chelsea went for the win, and it was the Belgian’s back heel that set up Fabregas for the Londoners’ third goal a couple of minutes into extra time.
By then, Marcin Wasilewski (4.0) had been sent off following a clash with who else but Costa and Fabregas went on to seal a famous victory, sending a potent reminder to his manager of the skills he possesses ahead of the clash with his former club Arsenal.
Antonio Conte had this to say on the Spaniard’s performance…
“I am pleased for Cesc…He played a good game and he showed me in this period great attitude and commitment during the training sessions and when I call him during the game to come on. All the players in my squad have the possibility to play against Arsenal. I want to win. My choice is done to win. I don’t care what the surname is. It’s important when I call someone to play to show me my choice is not wrong.”
Claudio Ranieri, meanwhile, managed to pull some positives from the wreckage.
“Shinji (Okazaki) was very determined. It is good because between Shinji and Ulloa they want to fight to have a chance.For us that is good. And also I watched Jeffrey Schlupp come back after his injury, Ben Chilwell, Demarai Gray and Ahmed Musa must understand much better the Premier League, but it is okay.”
Leicester XI: Zieler, Simpson, Wasilewski, Morgan, Chilwell, Drinkwater, King, Gray (Amartey 90), Schlupp, Musa (Vardy 76), Okazaki (Ulloa 75).
Subs: Hamer, Benalouane, Amartey, Mahrez, Kapustka, Vardy, Ulloa.
Chelsea XI: Begovic, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Alonso, Moses, Fabregas, Matic, Pedro (Hazard 89), Loftus-Cheek (Costa 67), Batshuayi (Chalobah 80).
Subs: Courtois, Aina, Chalobah, Kante, Willian, Hazard, Costa.
Bournemouth 2 Preston 3 (AET)
Eddie Howe went the whole League Cup hog and changed his entire line-up for the visit of Preston.
But by the end of a chastening night, he was left to rue that decision and went public with his contrition.
“I think I have to apologise to the supporters. I’ll have to look at the changes, I’m trying to give people an opportunity to stake a claim for a first time spot, ultimately as manager I have to take responsibility.”
Bournemouth came from behind to give the fans some hope, Lewis Grabban (4.5) levelling from the penalty spot before Dan Gosling (4.8) put the Cherries ahead with 14 minutes to go from a Grabban cross.
But Preston pinched an equaliser and then won it in extra time.
Tyrone Mings (4.5) made his first start following a long injury lay-off, but only goalscorer Gosling emerged with much credit from a night to forget for Howe.
“I don’t think, Dan Gosling apart, that I will have selection issues. He kept going, led by example. I believe in the players but that didn’t show.”
Bournemouth XI: Federici, Ake, Marc Wilson (Mousset 45), Mings (Jordan 90), B Smith, Gradel, Grabban, Gosling, Lewis Cook, Fraser (Hyndman 89), Afobe.
Subs: Allsop, Harfield, Buckley, O’Connell
Everton 0 Norwich 2
Everton’s bright start to the season didn’t make it as far as the League Cup, beaten by a competitive and clinical Norwich side.
Ronald Koeman made six changes from the win over Middlesbrough but still picked an experienced line-up, with Enner Valencia (5.5) given his first start up front, and the Toffees spent large swathes of the match on top without translating their dominance into goals.
Norwich, on the other hand, scored from both their shots, leaving Koeman rueing missed opportunities.
“Of course I’m not happy about the final result because in cup football you don’t get a second chance…But I can’t criticise my players because they did everything to score the goal. We had enough chances to score the goal but we did not. You can make it difficult, but football is about scoring goals and, as you saw with the first goal for Norwich, you need a bit of luck.”
Koeman might need a bit of luck, but he definitely needs adequate cover for Romelu Lukaku (9.3) up front as Valencia’s performance was far from convincing.
Everton XI: Stekelenburg: Coleman, Holgate (Kone, 83), Williams, Funes Mori: Gueye, Cleverley: Deulofeu (Mirallas 68), Barkley, Lennon (Bolasie 68); Valencia
Subs: Robles, Jagielka, Barry, Oviedo.
Derby 0 Liverpool 3
Liverpool scored three or more goals in a match for the 16th time in 2016 as they made short work of Derby.
Jurgen Klopp handed Loris Karius (4.9) his Liverpool debut in goal and Roberto Firmino (8.4) also returned after missing Friday’s match against Chelsea with a groin injury.
But it was Philippe Coutinho (8.1) who stole the show.
The Brazilian’s corner set up a first Liverpool goal for centre-back Ragnar Klavan (4.9) before the midfielder got on the scoresheet himself after playing a one-two with Firmino.
Coutinho then threaded a pass through to Divock Origi (6.7) who blasted home to complete an impressive night’s work for the Reds.
Liverpool XI: Karius; Clyne, Matip, Klavan, Moreno; Lucas, Henderson (Can 57), Grujic; Coutinho (Ings 63), Origi, Firmino (Ejaria 78).
Subs: Mignolet, Lovren, Milner, Mane.
Nottingham Forest 0 Arsenal 4
A resounding win, two strikes from new signing Lucas Perez (8.3) and the mighty Nicklas Bendtner denied a goal against his old club made for a good evening out in the Midlands for Arsenal.
Granit Xhaka (5.3) proved his long-range screamer against Hull wasn’t a one-off by firing in another from outside the area to open the scoring before Perez converted a penalty to double the lead after a foul on Chuba Akpom (5.2).
Perez’s second involved a run in from the left and a skip round the keeper and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (6.0) completed the rout in injury time.
With Olivier Giroud’s (9.0) toe injury making him a doubt for Saturday’s Chelsea clash, Perez made a strong case for a second Premier League start, having been afforded just three minutes last time out.
Arsene Wenger was certainly in no doubt that Perez had boosted his stock with the goals…
“Who scores is not so important but for the player individually it’s good because he can convince people he can play for us. It will help himself as well to grow in belief.”
Once Perez is settled this could eventually see Alexis Sanchez give up the central striker role and threaten the starts of Alex Iwobi and Theo Walcott in the wide positions.
Arsenal XI: Martinez; Maitland-Niles (Bielik 87), Gabriel, Holding, Gibbs; Xhaka, Elneny; Reine-Adelaide (Zelalem 83) Oxlade-Chamberlain, Akpom (Willock 83); Perez.
Subs: Dasilva, Mavididi, Sheaf, Macey.
