Chelsea and Tottenham Prepare for Carabao Cup Draw Tonight
Chelsea and Tottenham will discover tonight just how quickly last season’s disappointment can turn into this season’s opportunity.
Both London clubs, more used to circling the Carabao Cup from a distance while juggling European commitments, step into the competition at an unusually early stage. Tenth and 17th in last season’s Premier League has its consequences. No European football, and an August date with the League Cup second round.
For once, the glamour of Europe belongs to others. The urgency of August belongs to them.
Early entry, early pressure
Chelsea and Spurs are among 11 Premier League sides dropping into the second round, where they will join the 35 winners from the opening phase. Brentford, Fulham, Newcastle, Everton, Leeds and Nottingham Forest are also in the hat, along with newly-promoted Coventry, Ipswich and Hull.
The stakes are clear. With Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool all tied up with Champions League commitments, and Bournemouth, Sunderland and Crystal Palace in the Europa League plus Brighton in the Conference League, those nine clubs will not appear until the third round next month.
That leaves this second round as a rare window. Fewer giants, more jeopardy. A chance for clubs bruised by last season to build momentum, or to invite more questions.
Draw night drama
The draw for the second round takes centre stage tonight, Monday August 10, 2026, in Devon. It will unfold at Home Park during the build-up to the Devon derby between Plymouth and Exeter, with the balls expected to be swirling from around 7.20pm BST.
Sky Sports presenter David Prutton will front the coverage, with Jobi McAnuff and Jamie Mackie conducting the draw. The Carabao Cup trophy currently sits in Manchester City’s cabinet, but plenty of eyes from west and north London will be fixed on those numbered balls.
Television coverage comes via Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Ultra HDR, while Sky Sports subscribers can stream the draw live on the Sky Go app. Standard Sport will also run a live blog, charting every pairing as it drops.
Who’s in – and how they got there
The competition remains regionalised for the first and second rounds, split into Northern and Southern sections before the draw opens up later on.
In the Northern section, Wolves, Sheffield United, West Brom and Blackburn all moved through, joined by the likes of Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke, Lincoln, Bradford, Blackpool and others after a mix of narrow wins and penalty shootout escapes. Burnley squeezed past Notts County on spot-kicks, while Mansfield were brushed aside 3-0 by Sheffield United.
Further south, the story was just as tense. Walsall stunned Bristol City, Stevenage edged Wycombe, and Cambridge saw off Barnet. Millwall progressed on penalties at QPR, Luton swept past Gillingham, and Cardiff came through a five-goal thriller against Swindon.
Norwich hit four against MK Dons, while Watford, Leyton Orient, Reading, Birmingham, West Ham, Leicester, Charlton and Southampton all booked their places. AFC Wimbledon survived a shootout with Newport. Plymouth and Exeter will complete the first-round line-up later this evening, just before the draw is made.
The three clubs relegated from the Premier League last season – West Ham, Burnley and Wolves – all had to start in the first round, underlining how unforgiving the drop can be.
What comes next
Ball numbers for the second-round draw will be confirmed once the bulk of the first-round ties are wrapped up this weekend, locking in the full field before the cameras roll in Devon.
Second-round ties will be played in the week commencing August 24, back in their traditional midweek slot. For Chelsea and Tottenham, that means an early-season balancing act: bedding in new ideas and new faces while trying to avoid an embarrassing early exit.
The European elite will arrive in the third round. By then, we will know whether Chelsea and Spurs have used this head start to build a platform — or whether the Carabao Cup will become another awkward chapter in seasons that already carry a heavy weight of expectation.
