CHAMPIONSHIP side Sheffield Wednesday host Arsenal on Tuesday night in the Capital One Cup. Will they spring a surprise Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79)?
Sheffield Wednesday v Arsenal | Tuesday 19:45 | Sky Sports 1
Those of a certain vintage are immediately transported back to 1993 when looking at this fixture. The sides met (within the space of weeks) in both the Coca-Cola and FA Cup finals that year. Arsenal won both. Soon after Sheff Wed drifted out of the England's top-flight and never come back.
Perhaps that might change this season though? The Yorkshire club brought in former Sporting Lisbon and Besiktas manager Carlos Carvalhal in the summer and after a lukewarm start the Portuguese has began to make an impact.
Wednesday won just one of their opening seven league fixtures and sat in the bottom reaches of the table in mid-September. Things have turned though and since a 0-0 draw with Bolton on 15th September the Owls have won four of their last six league matches and are unbeaten.
Despite being a Championship side Wednesday will rotate their team for this match against Arsenal. They did the same in their win against Newcastle in the previous round.
I appreciate it's a trait of modern football and worked well in the previous round but it just doesn't sit well with me. If clubs can't get excited about the League Cup then why should fans?
Arsenal eh? Surely it's only a matter of time before they conjure up an inexplicable defeat? I took them on on Saturday against Everton (+1.5) but the win was more comfortable than I expected.
As someone who lives a 30 minute skip from The Emirates Stadium I'd love Arsenal to win the league but I can't fathom it to be honest. They should be too strong here but, like I say, set your watch for a long odds-on defeat soon.
From a value point of view the 9/4 on Arsenal winning and both teams to score appeals to me here. Both sides are in decent nick, and while Arsenal should dominate Wednesday's second string line up can riff on their excellent win over Newcastle in the previous round.
Remarkably Wednesday have notched in their last 15 matches at Hillsborough and you have to go back to Valentines Day this year to find the last time they drew a home blank. Bodes well eh?
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