League cups preview, predict scores

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.