Wednesday
The EFL Cup round 4 concluded yesterday, and it continued throwing up surprise results. Manchester City, four-time defending champions and winners in five of the last six years, were knocked out by high-flying West Ham United. David Moyes’s Hammers are sitting pretty in fourth, have a 100% winning record in Europa League, and have eliminated both Manchester clubs from the EFL Cup. The match ended 0-0 and 5-3 on penalties. Phil Foden’s penalty miss proved costly for Pep Guardiola, for whom any talks of quadruple are put to rest.
Another team requiring penalties yesterday was Leicester City. After drawing 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion, the Foxes progressed via a 4-2 penalty shootout win. No such problems for Spurs or Liverpool, who required 90 minutes to get past Burnley and Preston North End. Brentford also got the job done within normal time against Stoke City.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, Arsenal comfortably got the better of struggling Leeds United. Goals from Callum Chambers and Eddie Nketiah in the second half were enough to propel Arsenal into the quarter-final. The two matches that took place in west London required penalties to be settled. Once a Premier League fixture, QPR hosted Sunderland, but lost on penalties after the match ended 0-0.
Chelsea needed penalties for the second successive tie in the competition, this time against Southampton. Kai Havertz opened the scoring just before half-time. But Che Adams equalized just after half-time. In what was a lively encounter, both sides missed chances to win it as the match headed for penalties. Reece James scored the winning penalty for the Blues.
Here are the results in full:
Arsenal 2-0 Leeds United
Chelsea 1-1 Southampton (Chelsea won 4-3 on pen.)
QPR 0-0 Sunderland (Sunderland won 3-1 on pen.)
Burnley 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Leicester City 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (Leicester won 4-2 on pen.)
Preston North End 0-2 Liverpool
Stoke City 1-2 Brentford
West Ham United 0-0 Manchester City (West Ham won 5-3 on pen.)
When is the quarter-final draw?
The quarterfinal draw will take place on Saturday, 30th October, between 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM BST. There will be five teams from London and for the first time since 2016/17, Man City won’t be in the quarter-final draw. As is the tradition, the quarter-finals will take place somewhere in the third week of December. Official dates are yet to be confirmed.