After the trouble with Balotelli earlier in the week, Roberto Mancini must have been hoping for a quiet night against an under performing Villa side in the Capital One Cup. But Paul Lambert and his team came out on top to knock Man City out of this years competition. Clearly this wasn’t a priority for Mancini’s men going into this game, with one eye firmly placed on Saturday’s away fixture to Fulham then next Wednesday’s game against German champions Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League but still this should have been a victory for them. No disrespect to Aston Villa who fought to the end and secured the win but they have been lacking form since the start of the new season, only picking up 4 points in their first 5 games and having been rolled over convincingly by a somewhat poorer Southampton side at the weekend. City, with their wealth of talent and overpaid stars (rumour has it) should have coasted to victory but once again crash out of a competition like their red neighbours have done time and time again as they focus on the bigger prize that is the Champions League.
Elsewhere David Moyes trip to Elland Road ended in a 2-1 defeat as a spirited Leeds team put on a premiership like display to knock out the Toffees. Warnock called it ” the greatest cup victory of his life”, brushing aside his Huddersfield teams cup final victory in the Yorkshire Electricity Cup in 1994!!! Leeds United fans have a chance to savour a great night of football that must take them back to the european days of Smith, Keane and Kewell when CL glory was only 90 minutes away only to finally lose to a classy Valencia side. Its been a while since European football was on the cards for fans at Upton Park (2006 i believe) and they may have to wait a while longer after West Ham were knocked out of this years cup by fellow Premier league side Wigan. Roberto Martinez team came back from a goal down to beat The Hammers 4-1 in the end with goals from Gomez, new signing Ramis and a brace from Boselli.
Wins for Southampton, Middlesbourgh, Swansea, Swindon and Chelsea saw them progress to the next round and will be joined by the winners of tomorrow nights games, the highlights of which sees Man Utd meet Newcastle at Old Trafford, Liverpool away to West Brom and Arsenal entertaining Coventry. Can the sky blues leave their appalling league form behind and upset Arsene Wenger’s night by knocking them out of the running?? Time will tell but personally it’s hard to see happening.
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