Kick Off – Wednesday 26 October 2011 at 20.00
Andre Villas-Boas will use the cup match to forget about Sunday’s disappointing defeat to neighbours QPR, the Portuguese tactical was left very frustrated after seeing two of his players see red.
Fernando Torres is back available after serving his ban but Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa are all suspended for the match and Raul Meireles is cup-tied.
Like the last round, the Blues are expected to play youngsters such as Josh McEachran, Oriol Romeu, Romelu Lukaku and Ryan Bertrand.
Louis Saha is hoping to start, having come on and scored the winning goal against Fulham on Sunday. David Moyes is expected to recall Tim Cahill and Seamus Coleman, who both missed the aforementioned win.
FORM
In the last four League Cup meetings between the two teams has seen Chelsea progress in each, this included a semi-final win in 2007-08. The Toffees did enjoy an FA Cup win against the Blues last season when they won on penalties in the fourth-round replay at Stamford Bridge.
Everton are generally very strong at home in this competition, and have not conceded more than a single goal in 17 League Cup ties at Goodison Park. The Toffees have reached the final twice but have never won the trophy.
When Chelsea drew 0-0 against Fulham, it was the first time in 22 League Cup fixtures that they had failed to score. Andre Villas-Boas’ team are struggling for clean sheets, having only had one in nine league games.
BETTING
The home side are a generous 2s to win, but most of the money is being put on Chelsea, the away side are 4/5 to win in 90 minutes and 4/6 to progress.
Torres is 5s to be first on the scoresheet, meanwhile you can get 9s on youngster Lukaku to get the goals started. Saha and Cahill are the two main goal threats for the home side, you can get 7s on either of them to break the deadlock.
If you expect this to be a tight affair then less than 2.5 goals is 5/6 and over is 19/20.
By Scott Balaam
Twitter @AStamBridge2Far