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Dejan Kulusevski returned to competitive action for Tottenham after a 17-month injury layoff to play the last few minutes in the club’s 3-1 home victory against Coventry last week and followed that up with another substitute appearance in Saturday’s win at Chelsea.

Kulusevski had multiple setbacks after knee surgery in May 2025. But a second procedure in March finally set him on the road to recovery.

The biggest night in Everton’s season started with a big call from David Moyes and demanded a big performance from his players. With the exception of Jack Grealish, they did not let him down. A quarter-final at Fleetwood Town is their prize after a clinical, committed display shattered Newcastle’s hopes of lifting the Carabao Cup for a second time in three seasons.

Newcastle dominated spells of the fourth round tie and the stats – registering 28 shots to Everton’s 11, although only nine visiting attempts were on target – but individual defensive errors and an ineffective attack proved a ruinous combination. Matthias Jaissle denied his team are a soft touch, despite persuasive evidence to the contrary, yet called Newcastle “naive” and the defeat, in front of almost 8,000 of their fans, “shocking”. Andy Burnham was among the many Evertonians in attendance grateful for Newcastle’s generosity.

⚽ Everton dispatch the 2025 winners without too much fuss
⚽ Grealish misses last-16 tie over ‘breach of discipline’

2 min: Dewsbury-Hall shoots. Deflected. Nothing comes of the corner. Everton are playing in blue, Newcastle a pinky purple.

The match begins. Sky’s red-button treatment of this game, squirrelled away deep in its planner, is little short of a disgrace.

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Football Daily isn’t suggesting standards at Chelsea have slipped in recent years, but the quality of their players who miss penalties in shootouts against Liverpool certainly appears to be on the slide. Before last night, footballing royalty such as Arjen Robben, Geremi, Tammy Abraham, César Azpilicueta, Mason Mount and even goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga had all missed from the spot in four consecutive post-match deciders against Liverpool across 19 years and four different competitions. On Wednesday, a flame-haired Argentinian irritant, a striker we’d never previously heard of before yesterday and a defensive liability whose boots increasingly look to have been welded on to the wrong feet each added their names to the roll of shame. Valentín Barco, Emanuel Emegha and Wesley Fofana, take a collective bow.

The reaction when Fleetwood made the final penalty was the best example I’ve ever seen of pandemonium! – Jim Geissman

A few random thoughts from one of the Wednesday fans who saw Harry Kane’s first goal at Orient (Tuesday’s Football Daily). Main after match conversation topics were how we’d shipped four goals in the second half, our new signing Gary Madine, and those people on the balconies of the new flats who watched the game for free. Without cameras I’d have no recall of Harry Kane’s goal but funnily enough I do genuinely remember Dean Cox having a very good game. We’ve talked about it loads since, but I don’t think any of us at the time thought Kane stood out in that game. Which just goes to show. A thoroughly deserved award for a career of consistent & often under-appreciated excellence. And what a superb motto: “Work in silence. Let success be your voice” – Alan.

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The Friedkin Group want to sell and squad investment has dried up but Carabao Cup is still an opportunity for silverware

A European challenge plus a concerted effort to end a trophy drought that will soon stretch into a 32nd year were Everton’s stated aims for this season, although that was before the club’s owners turned the taps off in the transfer market and announced they were looking to sell up. An abrupt change of direction and ambition from The Friedkin Group (TFG) has not altered the demands on David Moyes, however. It is as you were for the Everton manager, regardless of the tools at his disposal.

Newcastle’s visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Thursday – when they will be backed by 7,732 fans after Everton allocated their opponents 15% of the ground – is timely on several counts. It is, first and foremost, an opportunity for Moyes’s team to advance in a competition that Everton have never won and edge closer to realising one stated aim for the campaign. It is also a chance to restore positivity after consecutive defeats against Chelsea and Arsenal, Everton’s only losses of the season.

Chelsea must have been resigned to their fate as soon as the shootout arrived at Anfield. Four times they had faced Liverpool on penalties previously and four times they had lost. Number five was confirmed when Wesley Fofana’s wild effort sailed high into the Kop and sent Andoni Iraola’s side into a Carabao Cup quarter-final against his old club Bournemouth.

Fofana was not the only culprit as Chelsea’s catalogue of penalty misery against Liverpool gained a new chapter alongside the 2007 Champions League semi-final, the 2019 Uefa Super Cup final and the FA and League Cup finals of 2022.

⚽ Find out who fourth-tier Fleetwood will face next
⚽ Live scores | Football Daily | And email Scott here

Basque pals Andoni and Xabi embrace warmly … but so much for friendship, because Chelsea turn Liverpool around, so the home side are kicking towards the Kop in this first half. They’re not huge fans of that. They kick off.

The teams are out! Liverpool in red, Chelsea in blue. These lads always look good when they play each other. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes!

Teenager was maybe harshly sent off in the Carabao Cup tie but his reaction was a mistake he will learn from, while his manager might also have regrets

Mikel Arteta’s reaction said it all. As Max Dowman trudged towards the touchline after becoming the youngest player sent off in a League Cup match at 16 years and 300 days, the Arsenal manager could not help himself.

Arms folded across his chest like an angry father who has caught his teenage son sneaking in after midnight, Arteta leaned over and aimed a few choice words in Dowman’s direction before the forward headed sheepishly down the tunnel. What he said remains unknown, although that hasn’t stopped the amateur lip-readers speculating on social media. “Get in the changing room. Now,” appears the most likely guess.

• Manager Lawlor reflects on ‘unbelievably special’ night

• Arsenal youngster sent off for retaliation before shootout

Fleetwood’s manager, Matt Lawlor, hailed the club’s victory as one for all football after his side shocked the Premier League champions, Arsenal, on penalties in the Carabao Cup. The side 18th in League Two held their nerve in the shootout, Conor Haughey hitting the winner to reach the quarter-finals.

The goalkeeper, Jay Lynch, was Fleetwood’s other hero, saving from Bruno Guimarães to set up the chance for victory. Aaron Loupalo‑Bi and Viktor Gyökeres ensured it finished 1-1 in normal time, but Arsenal ended up a man light after Max Dowman was shown a red card for reacting to a challenge.

It is more than 20 years since Arsenal played at Highbury but their trip to League Two Fleetwood – and a stadium of the same name – did not bring back fond memories as they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup on penalties. It was the team with red shirts and white sleeves that triumphed, but on this occasion it caused one of the greatest upsets in English football history.

Aaron Loupalo-Bi and Viktor Gyökeres exchanged goals in normal time but Arsenal were unable to find a winner, despite being the dominant force, as Fleetwood battled to the end. The home manager, Matt Lawlor, was almost in tears, unable to cope after the tension was released when Conor Haughey smashed the ball into the top corner to settle the shootout.

⚽ League Cup last-16 tie ends 1-1 after 90 minutes
⚽ Game briefly delayed by drone over Highbury | Mail Niall

Here’s the Fleetwood head coach, Matt Lawlor: “We’ve had to make changes, with the champions in town. But we’ve got a plan with substitutions to manage the game. Arsenal have paid us a lot of respect by naming such a strong team … it’s a very difficult challenge, but one we should enjoy, and not be overawed.”

“I was just thinking, with the two Highburys – I can only think of the St James(’) Parks (Exeter and Newcastle), but are there any other grounds with very similar names?” asks Shaun T.

Floyd Samba lit up this tie with a debut that will have the 17-year-old grinning for a while after a superb goal in each half ensured Manchester City advanced to face Brighton in the last 16 in their defence of the Carabao Cup.

Samba has an older brother by a year, Tyrone, who is also in the academy. Their father, Christopher, is a former Blackburn and QPR defender.

• ‘I take responsibility … it doesn’t feel good at the moment’

• United beaten 3-2 by Brighton after taking two-goal lead

Michael Carrick admitted Manchester United’s Carabao Cup capitulation against Brighton that was greeted by boos at Old Trafford was unacceptable and that answers had to be found at Fulham on Sunday.

United were knocked out 3-2 by Fabian Hürzeler’s visitors after leading 2-0 after 10 minutes through Shea Lacey and Mason Mount. Goals from Charalampos Kostoulas in first‑half added time, Pascal Gross on 65 minutes and Maxim De Cuyper four minutes later eliminated United.

Across four days Manchester United have lost the 199th derby against Manchester City, were told by JJ Gabriel that he wants to leave, and now they have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Brighton.

Capitulating after being 2-0 up may be the pick of these dizzying blows, as the prolonged boos at the final whistle suggested, and doing so ends a proud 50-year record: the last time the same lead at Old Trafford ended in defeat was Tottenham’s 3-2 win in September 1976.

⚽ Live updates from four third-round matches
⚽ Manchester United shocked as JJ Gabriel asks to leave
⚽ Get in touch! Email Will with any thoughts

Poor Joshua Zirkzee cannot get a game in the Carabao Cup. I am not sure he will get many minutes in the months to come.

Max Dowman continues to be good. Mikel Merino can similarities to a certain Lamine Yamal, which is high praise.

Tottenham scored and Roberto De Zerbi eulogised the quality at his disposal, yet try telling Spurs’ suffering away support there was consolation to be found at Anfield. Liverpool toyed with De Zerbi by advancing into round four with a quality of finishing that he can only dream of.

While the Spurs head coach talked a good game and his players played a pretty one in harmless areas, Liverpool produced the only effective one. Alexis Mac Allister promoted his claims for a new contract for the second midweek in succession with an excellent strike and Cody Gakpo continued his fine early season form with a smart second plus an assist. But both were overshadowed by Dominik Szoboszlai’s stupendous 25-yard finish in stoppage time.

The bad news for everyone else is that Arsenal’s next generation is already here. Two mesmerising goals and an assist in a man-of-the-match display from Max Dowman underlined why the 16-year-old has been compared to a certain Lionel Messi by his manager, Mikel Arteta, as Ipswich were swatted aside with ease. Almost as impressive was the performance of the 17-year-old Marli Salmon, who oozed class in central defence on only the second senior start of his career.

Ipswich won here the last time these two sides met in this competition, in 2011, but were beaten 3-0 in the second leg of the semi-final at the Emirates before Arsenal infam­ously lost to Birmingham in the final. ­Fifteen years on, Gary O’Neil’s heavily rotated side stood no chance against last year’s runners up after Dowman’s brilliant opening goal. Noni Madueke and the stand-in skipper Mikel Merino were also on target as Arsenal made it seven wins out of seven to start the new campaign. Having finally ended their long wait for silverware in style, this team are hungry for more and know they can now rely on one of the most exciting talents ever to have emerged from their Hale End academy.

⚽️ Carabao Cup news from the 8pm BST kick-off at Anfield
⚽️ Ipswich v Arsenal – follow it live
⚽️ Live scoreboard | Send your thoughts to Scott via email

1 min: There have been a few concerns about Mamardashvili’s distribution with his feet … and he whistles his first pass, a simple one towards Kerkez on the left, out of play. He looks suitably sheepish. No real harm done, though.

After a quick blast of You’ll Never Walk Alone, Tottenham Hotspur get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Kop in this first half. Meanwhile Ian Copestake replies to krishnamoorthy v: “I could have crossed the road faster but I have to get my kicks somehow.”

Max Dowman struck twice as the Gunners eased past the hosts to advance to the fourth round

Allan Castle writes in:

As a British-born Canadian, who has shuttled back and forth over the Atlantic for six decades, when I get back to England I seek out cherished beverages past and present that are unavailable or only sporadically found in Canada: orange squash, ginger beer, Theakston’s Old Peculier, real bitter, etc. What is Carabao? What does it taste like? And, perhaps most important, what are the cultural assumptions British people make about Carabao drinkers? I’m old enough to know that no seemingly benign refreshment decision in the UK is made without social consequences.

With Enciso on the bench, Arsenal will win. It’s too bad for Ipswich’s lack of courage.

Where’s the fun in doing it the easy way? Chelsea remain chaotic at the back but can drag their opponents into horrible places. It helps, mind you, to have some assistance from the referee. Jarred Gillett and Cole Palmer? They made for a killer ­combination as Chelsea swerved embarrassment and treated Stamford Bridge to one of life’s rarities: a classic in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

Gillett, a referee who always seems to be guessing when he makes key calls, was the villain as far as Leeds were concerned. They had just gone 2-0 up when Gillett altered the flow of the tie by pointing to the spot after Pep Chavarría made the most of slight contact from Daniel James. The subsequent conversion from Palmer was inevitable and from there so was the comeback from Chelsea, who rattled through four goals in 12 minutes before eventually reaching the last 16 by winning 6-3.