Chelsea’s summer signing truly heralded his arrival in the Blues’ big win over Wolves, with Max Dorman joining Manchester City, Crystal Palace and holders Newcastle in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, en route to Arsenal’s victory.
After Brentford, Fulham and League One side Cardiff City confirmed their names on Tuesday, Crystal Palace delivered the only ‘shock’ result on Wednesday. It was a routine victory before kick-off as manager Arne Slott made the decision to let his children join in on Liverpool’s misery, with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and other first-team mates watching from the stands in cozy coats.
Read more: Arne Slott makes Liverpool kids a disastrous contributor to his dismissal Footnotes
Chelsea worked hard to win against Wolves. Andrei Santos, Tyrik George and Estevao added three goals at half-time before Vitor Pereira’s side took two through goals from Tolu Arokodare and David Moller-Wolf in a tense final 20 minutes. Only Jamie Gittens scored an extraordinary goal to (almost) end the game, saving us a few more minutes of unnecessary stress after Møller Wolf scored again in stoppage time.
Since arriving at Chelsea, Gittens has looked like an excellent candidate to flip again and be sold forward, looking more like a downgrade to Noni Madueke. But after impressing in the 5-0 win over Ajax, this goal, in which he almost sliced the ball off the post with incredible force as it rebounded from 25 yards, was the first sign that the Blues might have a truly special footballer on their hands. It was wonderful.
Less spectacularly, Chelsea’s other red card was their sixth of the season, including Enzo Maresca’s sending off against Liverpool. Liam Delap returned from injury and came off the bench for what was supposed to be a 30-minute cameo, but was suspended after being shown two yellow cards.
Arsenal’s win over Brighton was more routine – what else should you expect these days? – Bukayo Saka came off the bench to seal the win after Ethan Nwaneri opened the scoring with a neat backheel from Mikel Merino in the build-up.
Dauman, who became the Gunners’ youngest ever starter, was replaced by 17-year-old striker Andre Harriman-Annus. Will Mikel Arteta trust in youth again?
Read more: Will Arteta return to a late 2023 mindset and harm Arsenal’s aim to beat Chelsea and win Lennart Karl?
Gonzalo Franco’s beautiful arching curler into the top corner gave Swansea hopes of an upset against eight-time champions City, but Jeremy Doku’s deflected effort saw Josep Guardiola’s side equalize before the break, and late goals from Omar Marmouche and Rayan Cherki sealed their place in the quarter-finals.
Headers from Fabian Schaal and Nick Waltemaide sealed the victory for Newcastle over Tottenham, with Thun fans giddy with the prospect of returning to Wembley at the end of March to defend their crown.
Carabao Cup quarter final draw
arsenal v crystal palace
cardiff city v chelsea
Newcastle United v Fulham
man city v brentford
Matches are scheduled to take place during the week commencing Monday 15th December, with most matches kicking off on the night of Tuesday 16th December or Wednesday night, 17th December.
