Traditionally in England’s top flight, teams concentrate the most on winning the Premier League, in second degree the FA Cup and least of their concerns is the league cup as some, or most, might say. But if we take a look on the winners list we can see clearly that most winners are from the premier league, only five teams in history managed to win it from outside the top tier, and that tells us something, the league cup is not a secondary option for silverware as it might seem.
Managers may prefer in the early stages to rest some key players because of the busy schedule and the need to win matches in the premier league and European competitions. But when it comes to the quarter final onward nobody will be happy to lose the match.
Just look at Mark Hughes’ face on tuesday night after the loss to Liverpool on penalties and you’ll know how much it meant to him. Jurgen Klopp on the other side beamed with joy and ran the pitch from player to player congratulating and hugging them like he usually does. Manuel Pelligrini last night gave Willy Caballero his chance to play and rested Kevin De Bruyne only, and the rest is the usual starting 11 for city. At half time the belgian tied his laced, got his shirt on, and entered the field to score the second goal for his team and set up the third for Sergio Aguero to advance to the Final 4-3 on aggregate. Pelligrini knew that qualifying to the final of the first cup of the season will give his side a big boost from now till the 28th of february and maybe a series of good results domestically and in europe, and these thoughts will be shared of course on the red side of merseyside who are in need of points in the league to close the gap on the champions league places.
The last two winners of the capital one cup did go on to win the premier league title in the end, it might be a good omen for some, a distraction for others but for sure the league cup does give us some entertaining encounters to savor and a first final of the season to enjoy.
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