At A Glance
Aston Villa and Everton go head-to-head for a place in Round Four of the Carabao Cup at Villa Park on Wednesday night.
It’s the second meeting between the teams this season following Villa’s 4-0 success against the Toffees in B6 in August.
Villa are five-time winners of the League Cup but have been knocked out in the third round in each of the last two seasons.
Opponents Everton are yet to win this competition, twice finishing as runners-up, including once to Villa in 1977.
Sean Dyche’s team overcame Doncaster Rovers 2-1 in the last round and picked up their first Premier League win of the season last time out.
Goals from Abdoulaye Doucoure, James Tarkowski and Dominic Calvert-Lewin saw the Merseysiders to a 3-1 win at Brentford.
League Cup Credentials
This is the first meeting between the sides in the League Cup since February 1984 when they faced off in the second leg of their semi-final.
Villa won 1-0 on the night thanks to a goal from Paul Rideout, but Everton progressed to the final after their 2-0 triumph in the first leg at Goodison Park.
The Toffees played their city rivals Liverpool for the trophy at Wembley, where a 0-0 draw set-up a replay at Maine Road, with the Reds winning 1-0.
It was the second time Everton finished as runners-up in the competition following a run to the final in 1977.
Villa have enjoyed a great history in the League Cup, having their name inscribed on the trophy five times.
One of those triumphs came at the expense of Everton in 1977 as Villa came out on top after two replays, scoring the winner via Brian Little in the 119th minute of the third game.
The club’s most recent win came in 1996, while we last featured in the final in 2020.
The Last Meeting
You don’t have to go back far for the last meeting between these two clubs, with Everton visiting Villa Park in August.
Villa put in a big performance for the first home game of the season, running riot in a 4-0 win.
Captain John McGinn opened the scoring from close range in the 18th minute before Douglas Luiz added a second shortly afterwards from the penalty spot.
Leon Bailey pounced to fire home a third in the 51st minute and substitute Jhon Durán capped off a superb afternoon when he netted his maiden goal in claret and blue just a minute after being introduced.
Team News
Unai Emery says Alex Moreno is being handled with care after he wasn’t included in the squad for Sunday’s win at Chelsea.
Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia are both out for the long-term, while Bertrand Traore and Diego Carlos are working their way back to fitness.
For Everton, Seamus Coleman, Dele and Andre Gomes will miss out.
Jack Harrison is back in training but Sean Dyche said he wasn’t ready to play a part in their weekend win.
The Bosses
“We are creating and we are building up. We have to try to be competitive in each match and competition. We will try to face each competition with different players and objectives in each moment.”
Unai Emery
“We know we have to change the story, I must reiterate that, but we do it by performances. We know the Evertonians will support us and back us, but we have to keep doing what we did at Brentford, showing that intent and desire to win games. Not just the quality, that whole body language, energy and belief in what we do to go and win games like we did on Saturday. We have got to keep doing that.”
Sean Dyche
