Chelsea and Tottenham meet in round four of English football’s fastest route to silverware, with a place in the last eight on offer to the successful team. This is the only round four Carabao Cup game tonight, with the remainder tomorrow and Thursday. It has been scheduled to fit into Tottenham’s packed diary.

Both sides will be keen to make amends for weekend draws, though Chelsea came from three down to level at West Brom, while Spurs felt aggrieved that Newcastle achieved parity after a late handball penalty awarded following a VAR review.Under normal circumstances the Cockerels would pull out all the stops to win a trophy they last won in 2007/08 by beating the Blues in the final. There has been no success since then, as Jose Mourinho reminded the club’s fans at the weekend.

Yet they face a fixtures list that demands compromise and picking priorities, and Chelsea will be keen put in a performance that reminds the hosts of another League Cup final: the Blues’ comfortable 2-0 victory against the Lilywhites during the Special One’s second spell at the Bridge.

League Cup wins

Liverpool 8Manchester City 7Chelsea 5Aston Villa 5Manchester Utd 5Nottm Forest 4Tottenham 4Leicester 3

Chelsea have won the last four of the 166 encounters in this heated London rivalry since December 1909, and have the upper hand with 72 wins overall.

Chelsea team news

It is a quicker turnaround between competition rounds than usual, and against higher grade opposition, but Frank Lampard may be prepared to give many of the players who battered Barnsley 6-0 another run. In particular Kai Havertz, the Blues’ leading scorer in this competition, will be keen at add to his maiden hat-trick.

Lampard has confirmed goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and left-back Ben Chilwell are in the matchday squad for this cup derby but Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic are not quite ready.

Former Leipzig man Timo Werner will feel at home this evening: like Willian for Chelsea, he was one of the first visiting players to net a winner at Tottenham’s new stadium. The striker’s pace and trickery terrorised the hosts all evening in the Champions League back in February, and he converted from the spot.

Nine of Chelsea’s six goals this season have come from open play moves, but Tottenham have barely conceded in that fashion. Four of the six goals against them came from penalties or a set-piece.

How will the Lilywhites line-up?

‘I’d like to fight for the Carabao Cup but I don’t think I can,’ suggested Jose Mourinho after his side drew 1-1- with Newcastle on Sunday, and this competition is probably the lowest priority of their three competitions this week.

Even allowing for Mourinho’s craving for silverware, the pressure to win this derby against his former club may be far less in an empty stadium. Meanwhile, overcoming Israel’s leading club Maccabi Haifa on Thursday would deliver Europa League football, and the revenue of the group stage and beyond. The Cockerels are in Premier League action at Old Trafford three days after that, so something has to give.

Spurs’ forwards Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane is laid bare by the fact the pair are responsible for scoring eight of their team’s 11 goals this season (five from Son) and for setting up seven of them.

Son was removed at half-time against Newcastle with a hamstring problem, and will be absent for a few weeks. Can Mourinho run the risk of Harry Kane leading the line in all of the next three games? The England striker has only missed an hour of Spurs’ five matches of far, and injury has ruled him out of more than 30 games over the previous two seasons.

The absence of Son, headline signing Gareth Bale, young defender Japhet Tanganga and possibly Mousa Sissoko, who was taken ill at the weekend, may force more changes than planned whether Spurs like it or not.

With their full strength line-up the Lilywhites have been producing plenty of chances. Not least because former Wolves wing-back Matt Doherty has proved effective as right-back with license to act as an inside-forward.

Tanguy Ndombele, who completed a rare 90 minutes on Thursday, came off the bench late on Sunday, and recent recruit Sergio Reguilon may be involved for the first time. Mourinho tends to select his tallest squad members for games such as this.

How to watch this match

Tonight’s Carabao Cup clash is live on Sky Sports in the UK. Some matches in each round of the competition are made available to the EFL’s broadcast partners around the world.

Chelsea TV’s global available matchday shows – including early team news, exclusive interviews and analysis – are on the 5th Stand app, Facebook Live, and the official YouTube channel.

Carabao Cup arrangements

There will be no extra time tonight. If the match is tied at the final whistle, penalty kicks in the old A-B-A-B format will take place.

Chelsea have won three and lost two of the past five penalty shoot-outs across various competitions. Tottenham have lost each of their last three – including against the Blues in the Carabao Cup semi-finals in January 2019.For the teams making it through, round five, the quarter-final stage, takes place shortly before Christmas, and the semi-finals, reduced from the usual two legs to one, are set for early January. The final is to be staged at Wembley on Sunday 28 February.

When Chelsea made history at Spurs’ new ground

Chelsea fans used to call their old ground ‘Three Point Lane’, but our maiden bow at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last December was something of a landmark too.

For starters, it was a wonderful 2-0 victory, Willian’s brace making the Blues the fourth team to hit a 100 Premier League goals against the same opponent. The others were Arsenal, Manchester United – both against Everton – and Liverpool against Newcastle.

The win also marked the first time in any competition Jose Mourinho had lost a home game against a team he had previously managed. On top of that, the Blues became the first team to beat Spurs in all three of their home stadiums in the Premier League.

London and the League Cup

Chelsea were the first club from the capital to lift the League Cup in 1965 and have won it more than any local rival. Our first ever fixture in 1960 was a 7-1 victory away to Millwall – still a club record on the road in this competition.

Carabao Cup fourth round fixtures

TuesdayTottenham v Chelsea 7.45pm (Sky Sports)WednesdayNewport v Newcastle 5.30pm (Sky Sports)Burnley v Man City 7pm (CarabaoCup.live)Brighton v Man Utd 7.45pm (Sky Sports)Everton v West Ham 7.45pmThursdayBrentford v Fulham 5.30pm (Sky Sports)Aston Villa v Stoke 7pmLiverpool v Arsenal 7.45pm (Sky Sports)

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