Capital One Cup: Midweek hopes for crisis clubs

After a jam packed festive period and the third round weekend of the FA Cup, there is no respite for four teams hoping to secure the first trophy of the season. This week, two first leg ties of the Capital One Cup will be played, and its significance is in varying degrees for the four Premier League sides involved.

Manchester City will have the least worries heading into this fixture. They have been in scintillating form over the last month. Although they have a big squad, and coach Manuel Pellegrini will shuffle his pack, last weekend’s FA Cup draw against Blackburn is something they could have done without. That means a replay at the Etihad next week as the sky blue face a fixture pile up. That also meant cancellation of their winter trip to Abu Dhabi, home of Sheikh Mansour. However, they sit second in the Premier League and are still alive in all four competitions, but the squad will be tested once the knockout stages of the Champions League come around.

Their neighbours and reigning Premier League champions Manchester United are in shambles. They sit a lowly seventh in the Premier League, and this weekend lost their fourth match in six at Old Trafford, a result that knocked them out of the FA Cup with a tottering squad stretched to its limits without Rooney and van Persie. This game cannot come soon enough as it is United’s only realistic chance of silverware this season. However, a transfer war chest may be the Red Devil’s way out, but if results don’t improve on the field, calls for Moyes’s sack would only grow louder.

Sunderland have had a decent cup run beating Chelsea in the last round as they come up against United at the Stadium of Light. They have had a disastrous league campaign and sit bottom of the pile. Silverware in this competition may be the only shining light in their season as survival looks a bridge too far.

West Ham United cannot seem to win a game this season, although they did upset Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the quarter-finals. However, in the league it has been all downhill for Big Sam , and last weekend’s 5-0 thumping at Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup means this game (over two legs) against Man City is a must win or the manager will likely find himself in the unemployment line.

An intriguing couple of games to look forward to, with a lot of sub plots within the big picture.