Strong draw for League Cup quarters

The balls are in the pot for the Carling Cup quarter-final draw. Well, seven are in the pot - Manchester United's is still in the microwave. United are joined by Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur, about as strong a line-up as was possible given difficult fourth round encounters faced by Liverpool, Sunderland and Everton.

The League Cup, as I've written here before and for another website (it never saw the light of day - thanks), is a competition which deserves more respect and to be treated far more seriously. A glance at the teams through to Saturday's draw suggests that the so-called big clubs are in it to win it this year.

So is this a revival of the League Cup, a sign of something more worrying or simply a timely fluke of fortunes?

The teams so irritatingly referred to as the Big Four - yes, by me too - do prepare for Carling Cup matches with the intention of winning. Even Liverpool. To a certain extent their team selections are not as weak as they were for this tournament in previous years. I wonder, though, what that actually says about the bigger picture. Are the top clubs eager for a trip to Wembley or is it simply the case that their second strings are now so formidable that they can beat a pain-free path through this competition?

The answer of course is that United, Arsenal and Chelsea have such quality in depth that their reserves could arguably be competitive in their own right. There is undoubtedly an element of randomness too, given the fact that they were all at home in the previous round. It's just the luck of the draw, at least for the two London clubs.

But there is encouragement to be drawn from the second tier clubs and their attitude toward this season's Carling Cup. Manchester City, Spurs and Villa all beat excellent Premier League opponents in the last round and all did so with only slightly weakened teams. Taking Villa as the example, only three changes were made as Martin O'Neill brought in former West Ham captain Nigel Reo-Coker, England forward Emile Heskey and an American international goalkeeper who proceeded to save one penalty in normal time and three in a shoot-out.

These clubs are, for the time being, out of the Champions League picture and forced to aim for the Europa League on a European level. O'Neill has routinely fielded under-strength sides for Villa's recent European play and it does make you wonder why these teams aim for sixth at all.

And while a European spot is up for grabs at the end of the Carling Cup campain, there's something more important at stake, something forgotten all too often in football: silverware.

It is a damning indictment on a sport when an arbitrary league position (fourth, sixth) is an acceptable target and achievement. In an ideal world, target number one should be the title, number two the FA Cup and number three the League Cup. Domestically, everything else will work itself out over a season. But an afternoon at Wembley and a cup final win should mean more than sixth.

As a Villa fan who's now seen his club finish sixth for two consecutive seasons only to turn its nose up at Europe, I say this: thanks for two impressive league campaigns, Martin, but sixth means nothing to me now. I would take a League Cup win over that without a second thought. I think other supporters are beginning to think the same way which can only be good for the prestige of the tournament.

Intentional or not, the presence of the Champions League clubs on the latter stages can only further that effect. Long live the League Cup!

(Pic via Guardian.co.uk)