Carling Cup Previews: September 22, 2010

Scunthorpe vs Manchester United

Scunthorpe play host to Manchester United and this is one of those rare occasions when a team actually wants to play another far better than themselves.

The Carling Cup has been well known to give sudden cash influxes to smaller clubs, since a sell out stadium is something that Scunthorpe won’t see all too often. Scunthorpe’s manger is expecting Manchester to play a weakened side and he has openly said that getting any half decent result will be a challenge.

This Cup has produced its fair share of giant killings and it is more than likely to continue to do so. It will be interesting to see whether Scunthorpe can add their name to the list of shocking upsets, which are bound to happen at some point throughout the Carling Cup.

Well, Man Utd will not be even considering the home side as a minor threat—the fact of the matter is that they are expected to breeze through this; it’s not as if the Carling Cup is particularly important to them, although it would be nice to retain the title.

There has been a lot in the papers about Michael Owen’s frustration about not getting any game time and it is understandable; however, it would be pretty hard to ask Berbatov to step out when he is on such sparkling form.

Alex Ferguson has said that Owen will be playing a lot of Cup football as that is how United always do things: give the players who aren’t getting enough Premiership games a blow out in the Carling Cup.

This match any be interesting if you’re a United fan simply for the reason that you may get to see some of your young talent exhibited—both Bebe and Macheda are likely to make a start.

Chelsea vs Newcastle

We all know that this Cup is well and truly at the bottom of the list of priorities for Chelsea; this is something that if it was the only trophy they picked up, it would simply not do for the London club and the manager would be on thin ice.

As usual with these sorts of big clubs, this will be a chance for the younger and less experienced players to get a game and to prove what they’re capable of. Playing Newcastle will actually be a particularly good way of testing them out; after all, the Magpies have been showing that whilst they may not quite be the team they once were, they are still capable of competing the Premiership to some degree.

Carlo Ancelotti has already openly said that the likes of Bruma, Kakuta, and Sturridge will be given a game; it is also more than likely that key players like Drogba and Cech will be rested due to the high volume of games that are being played at the moment, especially by English clubs.

This is an opportunity for Newcastle, assuming that Hughton decides that this is a competition that his team can make some sort of impression on. The odd thing is that Newcastle have every chance of beating this Chelsea side and on paper, it may appear to be a shock result. The fact of the matter is though that should they win they will be beating Chelsea’s reserves.

The question is whether they take the Carling Cup as a serious competition. The other issue is that playing a full side could be somewhat dangerous, as they don’t really have the squad depth to deal with many injuries and keeping their key players fit and healthy should be a priority. If Carrol and Arfa both play then this match could be very interesting; if they don’t, this is going to be Chelsea’s game through and through.

Joe - livescoredaily.com - live scores and live sports