after the weekend’s fa cup action, the focus switches to england’s other domestic cup. the efl cup may not be the most prized possession in any trophy cabinet, but the competition does tend to get competitive once we hit the semi-final stage. with manchester city up against resident giant-killers bristol city and chelsea taking on arsenal, this week’s semi-final first legs are certainly worth a watch. before you go betting on these crunch clashes, take a look at our betting tips and odds comparison below.
bristol city’s reward for their giant-killing against manchester united in the last round is a two-legged clash with manchester’s other side. the premier league leaders head into this clash as heavy favourites, and they’re odds-on favourites to lift the trophy too according to our odds comparison. despite that, the robins will do their best to cause the mother of all upsets and get a result at the etihad in the first leg. but is it even a possibility?
our odds comparison makes the robins huge outsiders, they’re best priced at 22/1 with coral for the away win. when you consider how short city tend to be in the premier league, their odds of 1/7 with 888sport aren’t too different from what we see every weekend. that’s probably because the citizens are likely to rotate their squad a little, but they have such an impressive pool of top players that it shouldn’t be too much of a factor in this game.
while bristol city’s spell in this competition has been fantastic to see, the robins may just be a tad out of their depth in this one. they come into this clash on the back of a 5-0 hammering to aston villa in their last league game, while they’ve already conceded five times against championship leaders wolves this season.
as a result, we fully expect bristol city to be on the wrong end of a hammering here, with city looking relentless in their pursuit of silverware this season. the citizens are priced up at 23/20 with betvictor to win this clash with a -2 goal handicap, which is great value as far as we are concerned. with city priced at 8/13 with betfred to lift the trophy according to our odds comparison, you might want to get backing them for silverware before they rack up a big victory against their championship opposition.
chelsea v arsenal: can wenger finally lift the league cup?
just a week after these two met in the premier league, chelsea and arsenal are going head to head in the second of their three january meetings. these two sides must be sick of each other at this point, as they’ve already met three times this season heading into these two semi-final clashes.
one man who won’t be getting sick of this fixture will be arsene wenger, who misses out thanks to a touchline ban. his behaviour after the west brom game saw him banned for three matches, although his comments after the chelsea game at the emirates can’t have helped.
the blues are favourites for this first leg, while they’re second favourites for the trophy according to our odds comparison, priced at 11/4 with betfred. arsenal are as big as 5/1 with 888sport to make it through, while they’re outsiders to qualify for the final. however, they do have the draw on their side, as they host the second leg at the emirates.
the gunners will look to take advantage of that when they next meet, but first they’re going to need an away goal in this clash on wednesday. given that four of the last five clashes between these two sides have seen both teams score – including last week’s thrilling 2-2 draw – we think it’s worth backing btts in this one. you can back that at 8/11 with betfair according to our odds comparison, which seems like a great price to us.
the recent meetings between these two have been very narrow affairs, with the last four seeing three draws and a late win for arsenal. the previous three have all finished level, although the gunners did win one of those on penalties. wenger’s side were able to secure a draw at the bridge in the first league meeting of the season, and we think they can get a similar result in this first leg of this semi-final. with recent history pointing to a draw, backing this one to finish level looks like a smart move. the draw here can be found at 27/10 with ladbrokes.