League cups preview

By Onz Chery
Jan 4, 2016

I don't know about you but the midweek league cup games always catch me off guard. That's not going to happen this week! This week I'm not going to read a headline like "Middlesbrough knocked United out of the Capital One Cup, beating them 3-1 in PKs" and go: "What?! Nobody told me United was playing today! Why didn't you text me, Van Gaal?!"

I got my football calendar this week, league cup ganes are not going to catch me offside. This week is loaded with cup games: Capital One Cup, FA Cup, Copa del Rey. 42 cup games in total. Yeah, it's a lot of cups but don't throw away your cup, re-use it please.

I'm guessing not many teams are going for three points this week. Okay, no more jokes, let me start filling your cup:

Capital One Cup

Most big teams already finished drinking their cups. Arsenal got knocked out by Sheffield Wednesday (on a Wednesday) 3-0, Chelsea (they're still a big team) lost to Stoke City in penalties, so did Leicester to Hull City. And United lost to Middlesbrough in PKs too-- the game I missed.

So we've had an unexpected Capital One Cup so far, thankfully we got cups not glasses, you know glasses break easy. This Cup is only going to get more unexpected as you drink it.

We're up to the first leg of the semi-finals. Semi-final? Don't look at the cup half empty though, look at it half full.

• Stoke City vs Liverpool at Britannia Stadium @ 3 pm (USA Eastern Timezone) on Tuesday

Liverpool just came from an "angry" 2-0 loss to West Ham, but before that they were on a two game 1-0 win streak with Benteke scoring both goals. Their main problem is scoring, they scored four goals in their last seven games. And only won 2.

And for Stoke, they lost their last game to West Bromich Albion 2-1. They sit in tenth place in the league but managed to beat Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and draw with Leicester and Tottenham.

• Everton vs Manchester City at Goodison Park @ 3 pm on Wednesday

City scored two late goals to defeat Watford 2-1 last Saturday but they haven't been playing their best football lately.

On the other hand, Everton put up a strong performance their last game, tying to Tottenham 1-1. Their star player Romelu Lukaku is having a terrific season, leading the premier league in goals with 15.

We emptied that cup, next one:

Copa del Rey

The most anticipated game in Wednesday's league cup games in Spain is Barcelona vs Espanyol. Barca failed to score last Saturday against a rocky Espanyol defense in a 0-0 finale. I bet you each member of Luis Enrique's attacking trio wants a hat-trick.

Villareal vs Athletic Bilbao isn't a bad game either. Villareal sits in fourth place in La Liga while Bilbao is just two spots underneath them in sixth place.

• Athletic Bilbao vs Villareal at San Mames @ 6 am on Wednesday

• Barcelona vs Espanyol at Camp Nou @ 2:30 pm on Wednesday

Let's switch back to our cup of tea, we're going back in England:

FA Cup

United is playing Sheffield, Arsenal is hosting Sunderland, Norwich is going against Manchester City... There's a lot of good games. But the best one is nonetheless:

• Tottenham vs Leicester City at White Hart Lane @ 11 am on Sunday

Unexpected title-contenders Leicester are on a three game winless streak. Can they get things back together with a win over Tottenham?

CAUTION: Tottenham's cup is hot! The Hotspurs haven't lost a game since Oct. 22. They're on a 14 game unbeaten run.

I showed you the cups, can you guess what's inside of them? Predict scores:

1. Stoke City vs Liverpool

2. Everton vs Manchester City

3. Athletic Bilbao vs Villareal

4. Barcelona vs Espanyol

5. Tottenham vs Leicester

The best predictcupper will get a prize.

Article taken from Read The Game on availablesports.blogspot.com.

@onze Thanks, just wanted to be sure, like KTBFFHSWE said, that point system is pretty cool and rewarding. Also, I swear Neymar scored that late minute goal just to make sure I didn't get 3 point out of that match. :P

@ KTBFFHSWE 3 points for correct score of Tottenham vs Leicester? Lol. Like your confidence. If you guessed 3-1 Bilbao vs Villa. (1) for predicting that Bilbao scored 3 and (1) for guessing that they will win. So that's two. You right, roommate.

And one point for Tottenham vs Leicester 1-1 for you. Cause the game will end 1-0 for the Spurs like I predicted.

@onze I hope not, if you guessed it right, it mean Marcus end up with more point than I! XD

@onze alrighttythen. lol we're 2 confident fellas. Still think Leicester will score though, but not confident they'll manage a draw.. Spurs are looking dangerous at the moment and with Vardy out.. well..we'll see..

Also, I swear Neymar scored that late minute just to make sure I didn't get 3 point out of that match. :P

Lol Emobot. And if I guessed the Tottenham game right, I will be leveled on points with you haha.

@ KTBFFSWE I got what you saying with Leicester scoring and not having confidence in them drawing. Well... they not scoring or drawing. Vardy is out, Leicester is not scoring against Tottenham. I know they still got Mahrez, he's gonna put some shots on target but he's not scoring. Lol.

Standings

1.Chucksea -------------------- 11
2.Emobot7---------------------- 7
3.Minoas57--------------------- 7
4.KTBFFHSWE----------------5
5.Marcus201--------------------5
6.Onze11-------------------------4
7.Louis van gaal-------------4
8.tiki_taka-------------------------4
9.Shpalman ---------------------3
10.Raimondo90----------------- 2
11.NovaRuk-----------------------1

Congratulations to Chucksea for winning the League Cups Preview, getting 11 points out of 15. Thanks for predicting, guys. Chucksea's prize is a nice cup of water. Enjoy, bro.

Damn, well predicted @Chuksea :) Enjoy that picture of the glass of water now, mate. YOU deserve it! Not getting cocky and very very confident here but Leicester scored. Leicester drew.

Congrats on your cup of water @Chuksea, a well deserve victory. Also, yeah! I'm second with Minoas57, another one of my good buddy, do we get a consolation prize like a near empty glass of water or something like that? :)

The forever confident KTBFFHSWE.

@Emobot There we go, you and your good buddy Minoas can share this:

Thanks onze, appreciated. ;)

hahaha lol

Now last thing for you two to predict .

Is the cup half full or half empty ?

Hahaha thanks guys and onze for the nice cup of water, first thing i've ever won while betting its a very good beginning

@Marcus Half-full, I alway look at the good side of thing. ;)

For all Utd fans it is half empty at the moment. :(

@marcus11 that's a hard one LOL