Manchester United are the favourites against Swansea
The Carabao Cup holders Manchester United will be hoping to recover from their blip against Huddersfield in the EPL to win over struggling Swansea City.
It is however unclear the kind players Jose Mourinho will line up for this game. Back-to-back defeats do not go down well at Old Trafford but there is also the visit of Tottenham looming large on the horizon with the latter making a serious title statement by dismantling Liverpool at Wembley.
It seems likely Mourinho will put his faith in some squad players safe in the knowledge they take on a team hardly brimming with exuberance as Scott McTominay, Luke Shaw and Matteo Darmian press for a starting berth.
Game-changing first-stringers Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitarayan are in the squad so this could well be a bit of mix-and-match, while Juan Mata may feel he has a serious point to prove having been at fault for Huddersfield’s opening goal following a clumsy loss of possession.
We will get an idea of how desperate Mourinho is to hang on to this trophy just before 7pm when the team-sheet goes up but I don’t think this is going to be as straightforward as a 1/5 quote to progress might suggest.
Swansea defender Alfie Mawson admitted they had taken a step backwards at the weekend in the 2-1 loss at home to Leicester having convincingly won a first game on their own patch 2-0 against Huddersfield.
A quick turnaround might not be a bad thing for Paul Clement while the chance for some other motivated members of his squad to have a chance could be the ideal opportunity to revitalise a team that is not a million miles away from a decent spell of form.
A storming last 10 minutes saw United ultimately cruise home 4-0 when this pair last met in mid-August at the Liberty Stadium but Swansea had been well in the game up to that point so should fully expect to be able to compete, particularly if the visitors to go with a few fresh faces.
On a day when Ronald Koeman was shown the exit by Everton, Clement might be teetering somewhat as well but his players can respond and they are worth a small investment to deliver another jolt to United.
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