How the Carabao Cup draw now looks for Newcastle United after Wednesday night results
The Carabao Cup draw is now a little clearer.
Newcastle United strolling past Morecambe with a seven goal romp and NUFC now one of 12 clubs through to the fourth round.
A fortuitous set of September draws seemingly gifting the Magpies a spot in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, with only 90 minutes of football against League Two Newport County now in the way of Steve Bruce’s team reaching the fifth round (quarter-finals).
This is how the full Carabao Cup fourth round draw looks after Wednesday night’s results:
Lincoln City/Liverpool v Arsenal
Burnley v Manchester City/Bournemouth
Brentford v Fulham
Everton v West Ham
Bristol City/Aston Villa v Stoke
Leyton Orient/Tottenham v Chelsea
Newport County v Newcastle United
Brighton v Manchester United
The Spurs game at Orient was postponed this week and needs to be rearranged but the other three outstanding third round ties will be played out tonight.
Apart from the tie involve Spurs / Orient, next midweek (week commencing Monday 28 September) will see the fourth round matches played, including Newport v Newcastle.
Looking at the matches above, being realistic, if Newcastle get through, then the most likely other seven contenders will be, Man Utd, Tottenham or Chelsea, Aston Villa (or Bristol City or Stoke), Everton, Man City, Liverpool or Arsenal, Brentford or Fulham.
With the first four rounds of the competition being completed by the end of September, if Newcastle are still in the competition when we get to October, there is then a three month wait for round five, with games to be played in the week commencing Monday 21 December.
I can’t find any mention of when round five will be drawn but there’s no hurry with games not until December.
If Newcastle do get through to the fifth round, then there will be no continuation of Steve Bruce’s canny luck in the cup draws, though I would say NUFC would have a two in seven chance of a draw that would still give them every chance of making the semi-finals.
The fourth round ties I am looking at are the ones involving Fulham and (probably) Aston Villa, as very winnable.
However, playing any of the likes of Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea, Man Utd (or Brighton!), Tottenham, would be tough.
It would be nice to find out just what Steve Bruce would do with team selection in the fifth round, which would be amongst a very busy period of Premier League fixtures in the festive period.
Obviously, Newcastle in a decent place in the league table could / would be key.
The one-legged semi-finals are then in the first week of January 2021, with the Carabao Cup final on Sunday 28 February.
With the Government announcing that restrictive virus measures could be in place for the next six months, including fans not allowed into matches, that would / could take us right up until the end of March 2021, well past the Carabao Cup final…
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