Football Acca Tips: Premier League trio to progress in League Cup third round

Uncertainty surrounds the next few weeks of football as Covid-19 rears its ugly head for a second graphical erection. However, according to Boris, we must try to take the positives, and one of those is that there are seven League Cup fixtures on Wednesday evening.

Just one of the ties will be featured live on Sky Sports, and that comes from Fleetwood at 19:45, where Joey Barton’s side welcome Everton to the Fylde coast. Carlo Ancelotti’s side have been quick out the traps with two wins from two in the Premier League and his side feature in my football tips for the evening.

Predicting team news for the early rounds of the League Cup can be extremely tricky at the best of times. Throw in a global pandemic to the equation and it becomes a nightmare. My advice would be to wait until team news is released before making your selections or to check that you have a cash out available with your bookmaker for if team news is not what you predicted. 

I’ve picked out a trio of Premier League teams who I feel should all progress to the next round of the tournament. The treble is currently best-priced with Paddy Power who have given it a boost to 4/1.

As mentioned above, Don Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton have been quick out of the traps this season. Colombian James Rodriguez appears to have made a seamless transition to life in the Premier League, despite apparently lacking match fitness. I don’t expect him to start the game against Fleetwood, although The Toffees do have an array of talented players who should be starting such as Moise Kean, Bernard, and Gylfi Sigurdsson. 

Those three all started in the 3-0 win against Salford in the second-round of the League Cup last week with the gap in quality being too big an obstacle for Salford to overcome. Gylfi Sigurdsson was awarded the man-of-the-match in that game and I expect him to have a large influence against Fleetwood, pulling the strings from midfield. 

I think this could be one of the better ties of the third-round for the neutral to watch, as there’s no doubt that Joey Barton will have his players hyped up for the occasion. The competition for places at Everton is rife at the moment and I can only see those selected putting in good performances and contributing towards a convincing win for Ancelotti’s side.

The second side who I’m including in this treble is Newcastle. Steve Bruce’s side travel to League Two Morecambe and I think that again the gap in quality will be the major telling point in this tie. 

Neither of Joelinton or Miguel Almiron started in Newcastle’s league game against Brighton on Sunday. The pair started the game against Blackburn in the cup last week and are both expected to get the call up again to face the Shrimps on Wednesday night. Morecambe were beaten 5-0 at home to Cambridge on Saturday and they will have to be at their very best to ensure that the scoreline does not get anywhere near that against Newcastle. With £60m worth of firepower in their front-line the Magpies should cruise to a comfortable win.

Completing the trident of teams to cheer up a Covid-crippled Wednesday is Arsenal. The Gunners take on Leicester City at the King Power stadium with both sides having collected a maximum six points from their two opening league games. Both Mikel Arteta and Brendon Rodgers will make wholesale changes to their starting line-up, but I think it will be the Spaniards’ fringe players who come out on top.

Nicholas Pepe, Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka are all expected to start the game for Arsenal. I think there’s a really positive vibe around the training ground at Arsenal at the moment and much of that comes down to the influence of the manager. Arteta seems to have his side really well drilled and the results are paying dividends on the pitch. The Gunners look an attractive price to win the game at 6/4 and they are the cornerstone of the 4/1 treble that I’ll be taking a punt on. 

Best of luck to those following. Several of the third-round ties can also be viewed live on the Carabao Cup website. As always, please gamble responsibly.