Carabao Cup Draw: European Giants Enter the Fray

The Carabao Cup moves up a gear tonight, and with it comes the moment the heavyweights finally step into view.

Manchester City, the holders. Arsenal, beaten by City in last season’s final. Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Brighton and Crystal Palace all enter at the third round – and by the end of the night they will know exactly where their campaigns begin.

Not that it’s a straightforward, old-fashioned draw anymore.

A split field and a pre-draw puzzle

Before a single ball is pulled for the main event, there is admin of the highest competitive order.

The eight clubs involved in UEFA competitions – Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Crystal Palace – are first separated in a pre-draw to determine one simple thing: home or away.

They are kept apart, too. None of those eight can face each other in round three.

The reason is blunt and logistical. With the expanded Champions League and Europa League formats now crowding the calendar, the EFL has been forced to stretch the third round across two weeks: starting Monday 7 September and Monday 14 September.

Champions League fixtures fall in the week commencing 7 September, so Arsenal, City, Liverpool, United and Villa must play their Carabao Cup ties in the second week. Bournemouth, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, who are involved in the Europa League starting the week of 14 September, are pushed into the first week of the Carabao Cup schedule.

The EFL’s stance is clear: UEFA dates cannot move, so the domestic cup must bend. The extra conditions ensure those eight European clubs avoid each other, guaranteeing every tie can be staged in one of the two allocated weeks without ripping up the rest of the domestic calendar.

Brighton, if they clinch their place in the Conference League, would join that European cohort. For now, they simply sit in the pot with everyone else, waiting.

How and when the draw unfolds

The third-round draw takes place tonight, Wednesday 26 August, live on Sky Sports.

There are two key moments.

First, the pre-draw. That comes before Preston North End’s second-round tie against Everton at Deepdale, with coverage starting at 7pm BST and the pre-draw expected at around 7:30pm.

Then the main draw, which follows the final whistle at Deepdale. With Preston v Everton kicking off at 8pm BST, the draw is likely to begin at around 10.15pm.

The first eight ties out of the hat will feature those Champions League and Europa League clubs, their home or away status already fixed by the earlier pre-draw. Each of them will be paired with a side from a separate bowl containing the rest of the competition’s survivors.

Only when those eight ties are done does the draw open up. The remaining eight fixtures are then drawn as normal, with no further protection or separation.

From the third round onwards, the traditional North/South split is gone. It’s a single national field now.

Sky Sports will show the draw live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with Sky Go carrying it for subscribers online.

Tonight’s and tomorrow’s deciders

Before the draw can be completed, the second round has to finish its business.

Four ties are on the slate tonight:

• Bradford City v Burnley
• Newcastle United v West Bromwich Albion
• Preston North End v Everton
• Tottenham Hotspur v Charlton Athletic

Two more follow tomorrow, shifted for television as Fulham and Chelsea take Monday Night Football billing in west London:

• Chelsea v Luton Town
• Fulham v AFC Wimbledon

Only once those results are in will the full list of 32 third-round ball numbers be locked.

Who’s in the hat? Third-round ball numbers

These are the numbers that will matter when the balls start rolling:

• 1. AFC Bournemouth
• 2. Arsenal
• 3. Aston Villa
• 4. Crystal Palace
• 5. Manchester City
• 6. Manchester United
• 7. Liverpool
• 8. Sunderland
• 9. Barnsley
• 10. Brentford
• 11. Brighton & Hove Albion
• 12. Coventry City
• 13. Fleetwood Town
• 14. Hull City
• 15. Ipswich Town
• 16. Leeds United
• 17. Leyton Orient
• 18. Lincoln City
• 19. Middlesbrough
• 20. Millwall
• 21. Norwich City
• 22. Peterborough United
• 23. Reading
• 24. Sheffield United
• 25. West Ham United
• 26. Wolverhampton Wanderers
• 27. Bradford City / Burnley
• 28. Newcastle United / West Bromwich Albion
• 29. Tottenham Hotspur / Charlton Athletic
• 30. Preston North End / Everton
• 31. Chelsea / Luton Town
• 32. Fulham / AFC Wimbledon

Some of those names arrive in form. Brentford, for one, smashed six past Birmingham in a 6–1 away win last night. Leeds continued their purple patch on the road with another victory at Nottingham Forest, their second in four days at the City Ground. Fleetwood Town, the only fourth-tier side to make it through, hammered Shrewsbury Town 4–0.

Elsewhere, Hull City needed penalties to edge past Stoke, while West Ham cruised to a 4–1 win at Southampton. Ipswich turned over Leicester, Coventry won a six-goal contest at Plymouth, and Peterborough ran riot at Watford with a 5–1 success.

The northern half of the second round also delivered: Middlesbrough, Barnsley, Sheffield United, Lincoln City, Wolves, Hull, Leeds and Fleetwood all booked their spots.

Put all of that together and you get a third round that looks wide open beneath the looming presence of City and the rest of England’s European contingent.

The big clubs are coming. The draw will decide whether this Carabao Cup stays routine for them, or whether the first real jeopardy of the season lands before the leaves have even turned.