League Cup special

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Sunday sees Chelsea and Spurs fight it out for the first piece of silverware of the season.  This will be the second time that these two London rivals have met in the final, the last occasion in 2008 it was the North London club who took the spoils with a 2-1 win over the Blues.

A Didier Drogba 39th minute strike gave Chelsea the lead at Wembley that day but a Dimitar Berbatov penalty was enough to take the game to extra time where finally it was settled by a Johnathan Woodgate in the 4th minute of extended time.  It meant that the Blues were unable to retain the trophy they had won against Arsenal the  previous year.


Both Sunday's teams have won this competition 4 times each.

Tottenham in 1971, 1973, 1999 and 2008.

Spurs have been runners up on 3 other occasions, 1982 against Liverpool, 2002 to Blackburn Rovers and 2008 to Manchester United.

Chelsea's 4 wins came against Leicester City in a two legged final in 1965, 1998 against Middlesbrough, 2005 against Liverpool and in 2007 in the last final played at the Millennium Stadium against Arsenal.

Chelsea have been runners up twice in 1972 and 2008.

I am finding it hard to pick a winner in this game, both teams will have an array of talent on show on Sunday afternoon and on paper it looks like it might go all the way.

Both teams have top players in all positions over the pitch.  From the goalkeepers, through the defence and midfield and to the front line their are match ups throughout.

The biggest of these will be in midfield and the contest between Christian Eriksen and Eden Hazard.  One of these two players may hold the key to unlock the opposition defence which will ultimately win their side the game.

Hazard v Eriksen

The other heavyweight clash will be between the strikers.

Harry Kane is having a wonderful début season and leads the scoring charts in all competitions, his counterpart Diego Costa has also been enjoying his first season in the Premier league and he is joint top at the top of the League scorers table with Man City's Sergio Aguero on 17 goals apiece.

Costa v Kane

Spurs come into this final having recently beaten their rivals in the league by 5 goals to 3 in a thrilling match at White Hart Lane on New Years Day.

Chelsea will be looking to get revenge for that latest defeat and personally I think Jose Mourinho will come into this game totally focussed on getting the job done.

It is certainly going to be a close game and hopefully it will be a good one.

My prediction is a 3-2 win after extra time to Chelsea, with Eriksen  scoring a late equaliser in normal time to take us all the way.



The league cup has thrown up some great finals in the past with some surprising results.  Here are 3 of my favourites.

West Ham United v Liverpool 1981

This was the first ever league cup final I watched.  The final at Wembley finished in a 1-1 draw, both goals were scored in extra time.  Liverpool took the lead on 118 minutes, just 2 minutes from time with a controversial Alan Kennedy strike.  When the Reds left back let fly with his shot, midfielder Sammy Lee was in an offside position, however the diminutive chubby youngster laid on the floor as the shot passed over him showing the ref and all around that although he was offside he was not interfering with play.   Back in those days if you were offside you were offside so for the goal to stand at all was a brave decision from referee Clive Thomas, one that was greeted with disbelief and anger from the west Ham players and supporters alike.  Ironically Sammy Lee had had a fantastic free-kick goal disallowed for a similar offside decision in the first half.

Alan Kennedy's controversial goal.

The Hammers equalised with almost the last kick of the game, Ray Stewart converted a penalty after Terry Mcdermott handled an Alvin Martin header on the line.  These days Mcdermott would have seen red, I'm not even sure he received a yellow for the offence, I think a penalty kick was deemed as punishment enough back in those days.

Liverpool won the replay at Villa Park just over two weeks later.  Goals from Dalglish and Hansen cancelled out an early opener for the Hammers through Paul Goddard.  This result meant Liverpool lifted the trophy for the very first team,  This would be the first of four League cup final wins in a row for the reds.

http://youtu.be/UtFfkuCrD84  1981 final

http://youtu.be/OVHA12O9DEQ 1981 final replay

Oxford United v QPR 1986

A game between two teams that you would never think would contest a major cup final.  After beating Liverpool in the two legged semi final it was QPR who started this final as slight favourites.

This was to be QPR's second league cup final, the R's had previously won the cup in their only other appearance in the first final played at Wembley Stadium in 1967, they beat West Bromwich Albion by 3-2, it was first time the final hadn't been played over two legs.

In the end though it was the relegation struggling Oxford United who raised their game to take the big prize.  The U's managed by Jim Smith dominated the game and hardly gave their opponents a sniff, they took the lead late in the first half through former Southampton youngster Trevor Hebberd.
Oxford added a second goal through Ray Houghton early in the second half before experienced Welsh international Jeremy Charles pounced on  a rebounded John Aldridge shot to put the result beyond doubt with only four minutes remaining.

Man of the match Trevor Hebberd.

 It turned out to be a great season for Oxford who managed to also beat the drop as they finished the season in 18th position on 42 points.

http://youtu.be/5t5BKIlw8TU  1986 Milk Cup Final

Luton Town v Arsenal  1988

If Oxford beating QPR had been a shock 2 years earlier Luton Town beating the then holders Arsenal has to be the biggest League cup shock ever.

Arsenal were massive favourites, holders of the cup having comeback from a goal down to beat Liverpool the year before thanks to Charlie Nicholas' and Perry Groves' heroics, it looked like there was only to be one winner.

Although Luton took quite an early lead in the first half through Brian Stein the holders who may have been rocked but spent the rest ofthe half and much of the second half dominating the game.  Two quick goals in the 71st and 74th minute from sub Martin Hayes and then top scorer Alan Smith gave the Gunners a 2-1 lead with only 15 minutes to play.  The game could have been secured moments later when a blatant dive by David Rocastle resulted in a penalty which unfortunately for Arsenal Nigel Winterburn missed.  Luton goalkeeper Andy Dibble dived to his left to deny the young full back what would have surely been the winning goal.

Somehow in the very next attack Luton were level.  An untimely stumble by Gunners centre back Gus Ceaser caused confusion in the Arsenal box and Danny Wilson was the right man in the right place to keep his head in the ensuing chaos to tap home and give the Hatters an unexpected equaliser. With the game now somehow heading toward extra time there was still time for Arsenal to receive one more and final hammer blow.  A free kick was pumped into the box and eventually it fell to Brian Stein who made no mistake, scored his second goal and made history by giving the League cup to Luton Town for the first and only time in their history to date.

Steve Foster, Andy Dibble and two goal Brian Stein celebrate an amazing Luton victory.

Luton Town finished this season in  a very credible 9th position this season, Arsenal finished only 2 places and 2points above them in 7th, however the very next season George Graham's men went onto win the first division title at the expense of Liverpool with a last minute winner from Michael Thomas.

http://youtu.be/5t5BKIlw8TU 1988 Littlewood's Cup Final

Here's hoping Sunday's game is as good as anyone of these 3.

Enjoy the football.