Compare EFL League Cup (aka the Carabao Cup) football betting odds from the top bookies and claim the latest bookmaker free bets, found on the JustBookies’ home page.
EFL League Cup 2020/21 – Outright Winner Betting Odds
To Lift The EFL / Carabao / League Cup Trophy; Best odds bold; Each-Way Place Terms: Win Only.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man City | 2/5 | 4/9 | 2/5 | 4/11 | ||
| Tottenham | 2/1 | 7/4 | 7/4 | 2/1 |
Big Teams Dominate EFL League Cup Odds
Manchester City have won the EFL Cup in three of the last four years and are again the bookmakers favourites to lift the trophy in the 2019-20 season, writes Nick Dorrington.
As with the FA Cup, England’s biggest teams have begun to dominant the EFL Cup (also known as The League Cup or Carabao Cup) in recent years. It has been won by a member of the established Premier League top six in each of the last six and 13 of the last 15 seasons. Four of the last five finals have been contested between two of those sides.
While it is true that the competition is far from a priority for any of them, they all have sufficiently strong squads to see their way through their first couple of rounds. The teams involved in European competition enter in the third round, one round after the rest of the Premier League. Once through to the last eight, they begin to treat it more seriously.
Last season, manager Pep Guardiola’s Man City defeated Chelsea on penalties in the Wembley final to claim the first of their three domestic trophies. Given the quality throughout their squad, it is difficult to argue against their early status as bookmakers’ favourites in the EFL Cup odds for this year’s competition.
In addition to Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all made the final in the last five years and predictably follow City in those rankings. Last season, Man Utd were the only one of those sides to be knocked out by a team from outside the group. Chelsea eliminated Liverpool, Spurs eliminated Arsenal, Chelsea eliminated Spurs and then City saw off Chelsea in the final.
Other Premier League teams will hope for this year’s draw to produce a similar number of internal top-six encounters and therefore open things up for a first winner from outside that group since Swansea triumphed in 2013.
Wolverhampton Wanderers showed themselves to be a good match for the top-six teams in one-off matches last season. Their participation in the Europa League is likely to stretch their squad a little thin and make it difficult for them to advance through the early rounds.
More conceivable challengers include Everton, Leicester and West Ham. Everton haven’t generally haven’t gone far in recent years, but they did get through to the semi-finals in 2015-16. Leicester have reached the last eight in each of the last two seasons, and held eventual winners Man City to a draw through normal time of last year’s quarter-final only to go down on penalties. West Ham have made three last-eight appearances in the last six years.
A team like Southampton (finalists in 2017) or last year’s FA Cup finalists Watford could also be capable of a good run given a favourable draw. Bearing in mind that 24 of the last 28 semi-finalists have been Premier League teams, sides like Bournemouth (quarter-finalists last year) or Crystal Palace also cannot be discounted to reach the latter stages.
Championship teams have struggled to make much of an impression in the EFL Cup in recent years. Cardiff lost the 2012 final to Liverpool on penalties after progressing past fellow second tier side Crystal Palace to get there. In the following seven years, there have been just two semi-finalists from the Championship. That is the same number as have come from further down the league pyramid.
It is a trend that has also been evident in the FA Cup and which underscores the degree to which teams in the second tier have to focus on their primary goal for the campaign: Premier League promotion and the television riches that accompany it. Four of the top-six finishers in the Championship last season failed to go further than the third round and none made it past the fourth.
Indeed, the best run put together by a lower-league team in last year’s competition was that of Burton Albion of League One. They defeated one Premier League and three Championship sides before receiving a 0-10 aggregate thrashing at the hands of Man City in their semi-final. There were shades of Bradford’s incredible run to the final as a League Two team back in 2013, when they saw off not just one, not just two, but three top-flight sides.