Everton have not won a big trophy since 1995. Can the League Cup end the wait?
Everton beat Newcastle 3-1 on 29 October to reach the League Cup quarter-finals. The final is on Sunday 21 March 2027.
What happened
James Garner, with his first goal of the season, Hayden Hackney, with his first goal for the club, and Thierno Barry were on target to take Everton into the last eight of a competition they have never won.
Everton beat Newcastle United 3-1 on and reached the quarter-finals of the League Cup, now called the Carabao Cup, a competition the club has never won. Everton have not won a major trophy since 1995.
Everton left Jack Grealish, 31, out of the game for what the club called a breach of club discipline. Manager David Moyes and chief executive Angus Kinnear made the decision. Grealish is on loan from Manchester City. “It’s a club decision and I support it”, Moyes said.
The owners, The Friedkin Group, want to sell the club and have stopped spending on new players. At the end of the summer they sold Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest for £35m, and Everton signed no second striker. Moyes was left with 18 senior players after the summer transfer window.
In the quarter-final Everton travel to Fleetwood Town, a club three leagues below them in League Two. On Fleetwood knocked out Arsenal, the Premier League champions, on penalties. Manchester City and Liverpool are also in the last eight.
Quarter-Final ties are scheduled to take place during the week commencing .
EFL, Carabao Cup quarter-final draw,
The semi-finals are played over two games, in the weeks starting and . The final is on Sunday .
Sources: The Guardian (2, 3), BBC (2), EFL (2)
The Pattern
We looked for cases where a club from the top league in England reached the League Cup quarter-finals and was drawn against a side at least two leagues below it. We found ten such clubs from 1998-99 to 2025-26. Two of them won the cup that season: Manchester City in 2020 and Manchester United in 2023. The other eight went out, three in the quarter-final and five in the semi-final. (BBC Sport; BBC Sport)
Show the other 8 cases
The Read
The past points against Everton winning the cup. Two of the ten clubs went on to lift it, and they were Manchester City and Manchester United. Seven of the ten won their quarter-final, and the three that lost went out by one goal or on penalties. The most common end was the semi-final, where five of the ten went out.
There are reasons for doubt in both directions. All ten clubs played in the same English cup, and seven of them came from the same four big clubs, Arsenal three times. The three other clubs all went out before the final. Everton were left with 18 senior players after the summer transfer window, and one striker. But Arsenal, the Premier League champions, are already out this season, and so are Chelsea and Manchester United.
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