Stoke City v Manchester United
Wednesday 18^th December 2013: 7:45pm GMT

As we ramp up to the hectic Christmas calendar, both sides will look to change their line ups to rest some more important players for the busy schedule that awaits them. This will give some of the lesser used players a chance to shine. This should make for a very interesting game from United’s perspective – with the wide spread poor performances under David Moyes you have to feel that every position is under scrutiny, so those on the pitch will be giving their all.

United to squeeze through?

David Moyes’ men are clear favourites to win this tie, with Bet365 offering the best odds on a United win at 17/20. Though the Brittania isn’t quite the fortress it once was under Pulis, Hughes has revamped this Stoke side and 7/2 available at StanJames is rather generous. A draw after 90 minutes is available at 11/4, also best priced with Bet365.

Adman Januzaj

The young Albanian-Kosovan-Belgian-English…man has been one of the few bright sparks this year for United fans, bringing a number of good performances to the first team with his tricky and pacey wing play. He usually gets his opportunities against somewhat weaker opposition, and we feel this may be a chance for him to shine in an environment compared to some more fringe players around him. Betting on him to be the Man of the Match is available at a huge 12/1 with Ladbrokes. He’s the darling of commentators, media hyped and will be given space out wide to work his magic – how could this go wrong?

United to sneak it

We feel that United’s squad depth compared to the home side will be enough to see them through this tie. Four of Stoke’s last six fixtures have resulted in the Potters not being able to find the net, so a Manchester United Win to Nil seems very tempting, best priced at 11/5 with Coral.

Tottenham v West Ham
Wednesday 18^th December 2013: 7:45pm GMT

So…those Spurs guys aren’t having the best of times. The media hype that has surrounded two very heavy defeats in recent weeks to Liverpool and Manchester City, combined with Andre Villas Boas’ leaving, has resulted in the image of a club in crisis. This is a great opportunity to use what may well be a more adventurous and outgoing West Ham side to get back onto the right track.

The bookies put the home side as heavy favourites, with Spurs best priced for the win at 8/15 with BetFred. A draw is available at 7/2 with SkyBet and the away win is at a massive 7/1 with BetVictor.

#DefoeWednesdays

So there’s no Europa League fixture this week, but there is a chance for Jermaine Defoe to snatch a goal against subpar opposition in the form of West Ham’s second string! The England striker is a nice 17/4 with BetVictor to grab the first goal of the evening.

Spurs to squeeze through

Before the media frenzy denouncing Spurs as the worst side to grace a football pitch in living memory – one, perhaps more legitimate, criticism of Spurs was that they had a lot of good players, without any fantastic ones. However, for the League Cup, this depth is a blessing. Townsend coming in for Lennon, Lamela for Chadli and the like isn’t actually weakening the side too much. So we think that Spurs should be able to win this game. As such we’ve gone for Tottenham to win by 1 goal, which is best priced at 27/10 with Ladbrokes.

At the same time, both sides have been struggling for goals recently. West Ham have a serious striker shortage to the point of Big Sam resorting to playing without one and Spurs have had difficulty finding the net in abundance all season. For our final tip, we want to back the Under 2.5 goals, which you can get at 21/20 with SportingBet.

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