The Carabao Cup semifinals are nearing their end, as Arsenal battles it out with Newcastle United on Tuesday, while on Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur will be hosting Liverpool. But afterward, the two-legged ties will conclude on February 3 and 4; the finals will then be held in Wembley on March 16. Which team do you think really wants the trophy more?
We have ranked these four teams according to how badly they must win this competition and then provided the reasons below.
4. LIVERPOOL
Liverpool has been in love affair with the Carabao Cup since the 1980s, with 10 titles under its mercy, the club stands as the most successful among all to have represented the competition.
That said, winning the trophy ranks fairly low on the club’s priorities. The Arne Slot side are topping the Premier League six points clear and with a game in hand, already on the top of the new 36-team Champions League table, and eyeing both trophies.
Did Liverpool appear to be in some kind of decline after Jürgen Klopp left in summer? Hardly. Under Slot, they are now even standing on top of the world for at least one major trophy during this season.
The Carabao would hardly compensate for the failure to lift either the Premier League or the Champions League this season. The last one of this year’s memorable days of the Klopp epoc was, nonetheless, an injury-ravaged, youthful Liverpool conquering Chelsea at Wembley, thanks to captain Virgil van Dijk’s extra-time winner.
Retaining the trophy this season could well be the extra spark that pushes Slot’s side closer to the fire of more silverware.
3. ARSENAL
Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have done almost everything save winning silverware in a sustainable manner. Last season, they pushed Manchester City to the wire in Premier League title race for the second consecutive season and reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in 14 years.
Arteta won the 2020 FA Cup, but of the starting XI that beat Chelsea at Wembley in August that year, only one player (Kieran Tierney) is still at the club and he is now a peripheral figure who could leave this month. And so, Arteta’s Arsenal as we know it today have really won nothing as a group.
The truth is this, Carabao Cup is as low as their priority list goes; it is evidenced by the team Arteta regularly rotates with for the competition while emphasizing acquiring the Premier League title which he truly craves. Just last month, however, Arteta, reiterated how transformational victory might be in this competition for his young group.
“Touching the cup, and being in the semifinal and beating somebody in the final, it is that energy and it creates the right path to go and do something else, particularly because of the timing and when the competition is played in this country,” he said. “It gets that momentum going.”
2. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou has long argued that winning a minor trophy does not by itself constitute success, but lifting the Carabao Cup might be the quickest way to save his job.
ESPN sources continue to insist that Postecoglou retains the backing of the club’s hierarchy, but Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle made it just three wins from 14 games across all competitions. Boos rang out at full-time and while the atmosphere isn’t mutinous, there is discontent bubbling under the surface.
Postecoglou may have joined Tottenham espousing a belief that they should be competing for the biggest prizes, but the majority of Spurs fans just crave any sort of trophy, with the team having not collected any since 2008. The manager would be right to argue that winning the competition this season wouldn’t be a sudden validation or vindication of everything that had gone before, but it would constitute a tangible return for his methods, which are being questioned more with each passing week.
Furthermore, while there is still just under half the Premier League season to play, Spurs are already facing a scramble to reach any sort of European competition given they currently sit in 12th place. The Carabao Cup winners gain qualification to the UEFA Conference League playoff round, which is better than nothing.
1. NEWCASTLE UNITED
When Newcastle reached the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in 2023, supporters flocked in the thousands to London’s Trafalgar Square, turning the capital black and white on the eve on their team’s clash with Manchester United.
While it was Erik ten Hag’s side that ultimately lifted the trophy, winning the final 2-0 thanks to goals from Casemiro and Marcus Rashford, the emotional reaction ignited by the occasion is proof of how much Newcastle fans crave silverware.
The club last won a major trophy in 1955 in the shape of the FA Cup, beating Manchester City 3-1 in the final. Amid the despondency of Mike Ashley’s era of ownership, yielding another major honour very much felt like a distant dream. But the club’s resurgence under the new Saudi-backed owners has inspired optimism in the fan base that its 70-year wait could soon come to an end.
After having had to weather a slightly sticky patch in the autumn, Eddie Howe’s side is now in a rich vein of form, having won each of its past six games in all competitions. If Newcastle were to get their hands on the Carabao Cup next month, it would only strengthen the notion in the North East that this sleeping giant of a club is most definitely awake.
