The Cowboy Cup 2017/18

[Kevin S]

Watching that game on Channel 5 just now, at one point we had a Ladbrokes stand, billboard adverts for Bet365 plus shirts sponsored by Dafabet and 32Red. I suppose Leeds also had Sky Bet shirt badges.


Oh, and right on cue, here's Ray Winstone.

[Snake Plissken]

Hang on, so Ladbrokes are Burnley's 'gambling partner' and have a stand with their name on, but the shirt sponsor is Dafabet?

Yes. Since about a month ago.

The sponsorship takes over from Dave "Bank of Dave" Fishwick, so goes from a local credit union to pretty much the opposite end of the moral spectrum.

[Uros Predic]

Ah, shite. Arsenal away.

Turns out it's not as daunting a prospect as you might initially think.

[Chopper]

People are soon going to be sorry for chiding us for not playing the kids...some serious talent beginning to show (Only Forest, ikr). Musonda is gorgeous.

If Batshuayi played every minute and scored at his current rate, he'd score over 100 goals this season. True fact.

[Kevin S]

Carabao Cup 2017-18, fourth round draw

Swansea City v Man United
Chelsea v Everton
Bristol City v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
Leicester City v Leeds United
Man City v Wolves
Tottenham v West Ham
Arsenal v Norwich City

[Nocturnal Submission]

People are soon going to be sorry for chiding us for not playing the kids...some serious talent beginning to show (Only Forest, ikr). Musonda is gorgeous.

If Batshuayi played every minute and scored at his current rate, he'd score over 100 goals this season. True fact.

Musonda (Jr.) had a great game and his joy at scoring and he celebration that followed, a lung-busting sprint ended by a euphoric swan-dive, was wonderful to behold. He does like to showboat though - great for the (Chelsea) fans but a tendency which I suspect he might get kicked out of him by opposition players in the next few years. Christensen looked the part again and it was nice to see Ampadu and Sterling get run-outs, neither of whom looked out of place.

[Ray de Galles]

Did Ampadu play in midfield (as replacing Fabregas would seem to denote) or was there a switch in formation to put him in defence?

[Nocturnal Submission]

He played in the middle, Ray, and did OK. He tried a couple of ambitious long passes that didn't come off but he looked very comfortable on the ball, showed good touch and control and moved the ball quickly. Impressive for a lad who's only just turned 17.

[Kevin S]

Well, this is tense.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

jaysus, what a header by lingard.

[Kevin S]

Balls.

[Diable Rouge]

Wouldn't worry too much, Kev, you'd surely be favourites in a shoot-out against Arsenal reserves?

[Kevin S]

2-1 now. Buggrit.

[Ray de Galles]

Balls.

Substandard ones, apparently.

[Satchmo Distel]

Are these games drawing high enough attendances and TV revenue for the big clubs to avoid the competition eventually being killed in favour of more Premier League or European games? I could see the top flight saying, Fuck this, let's go back to a 22 team top flight instead.

[Ray de Galles]

It starts to look like there has been a deliberate decision to turn the competition in to a farce as a prelude to killing it off .

The Carabao Cup quarter-final draw paired Bristol City with Manchester United after technical problems kept fans waiting almost two hours in a failed attempt to broadcast on Twitter.

It’s only the fact that I suppose the FL still gets some kind of kudos from having a cup of it’s own that dissuades me of the conspiracy theory.

[cantagalo]

Everything Shaun Harvey touches turns to shit.

[Satchmo Distel]

At least they had football experts Phil Tuffnel and Matt Dawson to draw the balls.

I'm also shocked that Question of Sport is still going. It was creaky as shit when I left England in 2006; in fact it seemed dead 15 years earlier, when Sky starting buying up the sports.

[3 Colours Red]

It also seems to be transmogrifying into They Think It's All Over - the increasing lack of focus on the actual quiz, the shunting to a late night slot, the cheap-looking set.

[longeared]

I'm looking forward to Tuffers telling us all about it during the Gabba Test next month.

"Oh, Aggers, we did the practice draw, then we went to do the real thing and we kept being told something ... technical wasn't working, so after a while we did another draw and I drew Manchester City against Manchester United, then they told us that hadn't recorded properly and we had to do another one. Very confusing."

[Patrick Thistle]

Amazing how Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchesters all missed each other in the draw.

[cantagalo]

Amazing how Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchesters all missed each other in the draw.

The probability of that happening is 22.9%.

[Satchmo Distel]

But that's the reverse of the 90s pattern, when ITV always wanted two big sides in a QF. It will be extremely tedious if all get through, though.

[Ray de Galles]

Claude Puel looks like one of the Four Seasons in that jacket, those cuff buttons being the finishing touch :

[Kevin S]

I had no idea the semi final first legs had happened until just now.

Man City 2-1 Bristol City
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal

And we have the special away goals rule in this Cup.