Capital One Cup preview and odds: Sheffield Wednesday vs. Arsenal

Published on: 26/10/2015

Capital One Cup preview and odds: Sheffield Wednesday vs. Arsenal

October 27, 2015 19:45pm - Hillsborough

League Cup

Second-tier club Sheffield Wednesday will be attempting to halt the Capital One Cup progress of another Premier League side when they welcome Arsenal to Hillsborough on Tuesday night.

Wednesday ready for Gunners challenge

Championship promotion hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday have already put Steve McClarens Newcastle to the sword in this competition, and now have the chance to knock out the team that beat them in the final of the 1993 edition. Of course, beating a downbeat Newcastle team currently languishing in the Premier League basement, and taking on a side that is joint top of the league and has just defeated Pep Guardiolas Bayern Munich, present very different challenges.

Having made the journey north to St James Park in the last round, Wednesday now have an opportunity to bag a top-flight scalp in front of their home crowd at Hillsborough. The Owls are no strangers to success in this competition having lifted the trophy in 1991. They followed up that achievement by reaching another final two years later, only to lose to George Grahams Arsenal.

Carlos Carvalhals team have risen to sixth in the Championship league table thanks to a 2-1 win over Yorkshire rivals Rotherham last week. They are unbeaten in eight games in all competitions and are just four points shy of the vital play-off positions.

Cup not a priority for Wenger

Arsenal are looking for their first League Cup triumph since that victory against Wednesday 22 years ago. However, this competition will not be at the top of Arsene Wengers list of priorities while their Premier League and Champions League campaigns are still going strong. Having just won back-to-back FA Cups, the pressure to win a trophy - following a lengthy barren spell - has been lifted from the shoulders of the veteran French Coach.

The North Londoners will be coming into this game full of confidence after beating Bayern Munich last week and strolling past Everton in the Weekends Premier League game. Tuesday will present an opportunity for some of the fringe players to make their mark.

Team news

For the home side Michael Turner, Alex Lopez, Marco Matias and Modou Sougou are on the doubtful list and will not be risked unnecessarily. Meanwhile, Joe Wildsmith should get the nod in goal ahead of Keiren Westwood.

The Gunners could make wholesale changes from the team that played last week with Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell, Calum Chambers amongst in line for a start

Recent form (All competitions)

Sheffield Wednesday: WDDWW

Arsenal: WWWWL

Betting odds and tips

Arsenal will start as favourites and rightly so, they have good depth to their squad and will have plenty of quality on the bench to call upon if needed. Having said that, the Gunners are capable of producing the odd dismal performance out of nowhere, as witnessed twice already in their current Champions League campaign.

The Londoners should prevail in this game but the Owls are capable of taking them all the way to extra-time. You can back the draw over 90 minutes at 17/4 with Bet365 or you can back the Gunners to win after extra time at 10/1 with Skybet.

Published on: 26/10/2015

Any odds displayed within this preview were correct at the time of publishing (26/10/2015 10:58:35) but are subject to change.