The League Cup season continued with the third round games, which were played in midweek.
Aston Villa will now ‘concentrate on the league’ as they say following a Villa Park defeat against Championship rivals Middlesbrough on Tuesday – the same applies to Brighton after the all-Premier League affair at Bournemouth ended with the Cherries through after extra time.
Bristol City and Leeds caused upsets as the Championship duo beat Stoke and won at Burnley on penalties, respectively.
A much needed, overdue in fact, Crystal Palace win was secured when Roy Hodgson led Palace to a win, his first as boss, against Huddersfield at Selhurst Park. Meanwhile, multi-time League Cup winners Liverpool were knocked out at Leicester.
Tottenham’s transition to life at Wembley doesn’t get much easier but Spurs did see off the challenge of a lower league opponent, beating Barnsley 1-0 – the same scoreline saw the Tykes’ Championship rivals Wolves overcome League One side Bristol Rovers after extra time.
West Ham and Swansea avoided upsets when beating Bolton and Reading relatively comfortably in the end.
There weren’t too many problems for the favoured Premier League sides on Wednesday, on the whole.
Arsenal edged out League One side Doncaster whereas Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United made lighter work of dispensing with Championship trio of Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Burton, respectively.
Meanwhile, Manchester City secured a fourth round spot with a narrow win against fellow topflight side West Brom at the Hawthorns.
Here’s a round-up of the League Cup results.
Results
Tuesday 19th September – Third round
Aston Villa 0-2 Middlesbrough 19:45
Bournemouth 1-0 Brighton and Hove Albion AET 19:45
Brentford 1-3 Norwich City 19:45
Bristol City 2-0 Stoke City 19:45
Burnley 2-2 Leeds United 19:45
(Leeds win 5-3 on penalties)
Crystal Palace 1-0 Huddersfield Town 19:45
Leicester City 2-0 Liverpool 19:45
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Barnsley 19:45
West Ham United 3-0 Bolton Wanderers 19:45
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Bristol Rovers AET 19:45
Reading 0-2 Swansea City 20:00
Wednesday 20th September – Third round
Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster Rovers 19:45
Chelsea 5-1 Nottingham Forest 19:45
Everton 3-0 Sunderland 19:45
Manchester United 4-1 Burton Albion 20:00
West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Manchester City 20:00
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