The Blues are London’s most successful contestants in the competition with five wins, last reaching the final in 2024 – the fourth time in 11 seasons.

When Wanderers bowed out of the quarter-finals in 2022/23, it was the furthest they had reached since the same stage in 1995/96.

Success at home in this competition against top-flight West Ham United and Everton has been in stark relief to Wolves' Premier League struggles at Molineux, where they have lost four and drawn one.

Last season in this round a much-changed Chelsea team lost 2-0 at Newcastle United, despite having 66 per cent of possession and 17 efforts on goal.

Chelsea reached the last 16 this season thanks to Tyrique George and Facundo Buonanotte completing a 2-1 comeback at League One Lincoln City in round three.

Over the weekend, both Chelsea and Wolves were undone late on in the league against teams recently elevated from the Championship. On Sunday, the Old Gold were sucker-punched by Burnley, who secured their first away points of the campaign. The day before, the world champions’ run of four victories on all fronts ended with a reverse at home to Sunderland.

Enzo Maresca will demand an immediate improvement and the Blues will hope to claim a third successive away win across all competitions, to reach the last eight of the League Cup for the fifth time in 10 seasons.

Team news

Enzo Maresca confirmed that he is likely to rotate his team for this Carabao Cup fixture, with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Joao Pedro among those whose fitness is being managed and are in line for a possible rest on Wednesday evening.

‘We need to protect the players because if we go with the same XI, we are going to struggle during the season,' he explained in his pre-match press conference. 'We probably will make some changes against Wolves, I don’t know how many, but we will make changes.

‘There are players that they need to be protected for many reasons, so tomorrow we'll see. Enzo, Moi, Joao - they are all players, for different reasons, we need to protect them.’

One player who could be involved at Molineux is Liam Delap, as the striker prepares to make his return from injury.

'Yes, Liam is available for the game,’ Maresca added. ‘He completed the whole session with us on Monday with no problems and he is available.

‘We have to be careful with Liam and [it’s unlikely he will play] 90 minutes. He’s been out for two months, so he needs to be gradually brought back up to 100 per cent.’

The history

Chelsea have won four of the five previous cup ties against Wolverhampton, three of which were in the FA Cup.

The first in that senior competition came in 1910/11 at Molineux, the great Vivian Woodward and Charlie Freeman producing a 2-0 round-three win for the visitors. At the same stage and stadium 17 years later, the Old Gold gained 2-1 revenge, inside-right Willie Brown netting in his final appearance for the Pensioners.

The next meetings were all in the modern era, most notably a FA Cup quarter-final in March 1994. Glenn Hoddle’s new-look Blues won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge en route to the final, Gavin Peacock maintaining his record of scoring in every round.

Our most recent knockout encounter was in round five of the FA Cup in February 2017. The Blues won with a clean sheet through second-half goals from Pedro and Diego Costa. Again we went on to reach the final.

Our only previous meeting in the League Cup came in round three on 23 September 2012, the champions of Europe running riot at the Bridge against Stale Solbakken’s Wanderers. With Cesar Azpilicueta, Marko Marin and Lucas Piazon making debuts, the hosts were three to the good inside 18 minutes, through Gary Cahill, Ryan Bertrand and Juan Mata. A similar wham-bam spell after the break - the goalscorers this time Oriel Romeu, Fernando Torres and Victor Moses - produced a 6-0 scoreline, Wanderers’ heaviest loss in the competition.

Know this...

Five-time winners Chelsea are London’s first and most recent holders of the League Cup trophy, in 1965 and 2015. The Old Gold have won the League Cup twice, in 1974 and 1980.

Three of Wolves’ five goals in this competition have come after the 80th minute.

Chelsea’s round-three comeback against League One Lincoln City was our 18th successive win against lower-league sides, the second-longest such run by a top-flight club in League Cup history.

The Londoners have found the net two or more times in each of our past three encounters with Wolverhampton Wanderers across all competitions.

The Blues’ last 15 exits from the competition came against top-flight opposition.

Carabao Cup regulations

Team sheets must be submitted an hour before kick-off. Nine substitutes can be named and five used in the game (plus a concussion replacement if required).

Two cautions in this competition leads to a one-game ban. Yellow cards and suspensions apply only to this competition, but red card bans are served across all domestic fronts.

Chelsea yellow cards
1 – Marc Cucurella, Enzo Fernandez, Filip Jorgensen, Andrey Santos

There is no VAR at this stage. Extra time is not used to decide ties until the semi-finals. Until then, in the event of scores being level after second-half stoppage time, the outcome will be decided by penalties.

The Londoners’ most recent shootout was a 4-2 success during a League Cup quarter-final against Newcastle in December 2023.