Coventry City vs Tottenham Hotspur

A place in the League Cup fourth round is up for grabs as Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur go head-to-head in a third-round tie at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Coventry have already outperformed last year’s League Cup result when they suffered elimination in the first round as they overcame Bristol City and Oxford United to set up a third-round tie against Tottenham. Despite their early League Cup exit, the Sky Blues excelled in the FA Cup last term, reaching the semi-finals, only for Manchester United to eliminate them on penalties (3-3 in regulation). However, Coventry’s hopes of staging an upset in this fixture look far-fetched as they enter this contest amid an underwhelming four-game form (W1, D2, L1). Low scoring has been a common theme in that sequence, with all four matches featuring under 2.5 goals, highlighting the potential for a cagey affair. Mark Robins’ men will need that to happen if they’re to defy the odds after losing their last four encounters against Tottenham via multi-goal margins and without scoring.

With three of those four H2H victories yielding an identical 3-0 scoreline, Tottenham fans might see this trip as plain sailing, yet Ange Postecoglou’s men head into proceedings demoralized after a 1-0 loss to arch-rivals Arsenal in last weekend’s North London derby. Gabriel Magalhaes’ winner condemned Spurs to a second consecutive Premier League defeat after a two-game unbeaten start (W1, D1), derailing their hopes of fighting for the league crown. Therefore, lifting their first League Cup crown since 2007/08 could be Tottenham’s best chance of halting a disastrous 16-year title drought. Despite coming into this fixture as odds-on favorites, the visitors cannot afford to take Coventry lightly, especially after going winless on both competitive road trips this season (D1, L1).