Top News

How will West London rivals Chelsea and Fulham manage playing each other and then the next round of the Carabao Cup?

The Round Two draw for the Carabao Cup has been made, and it has produced some striking fixture complications.

At this stage of the tournament, Premier League clubs not involved in European football come into the competition, with 11 top-flight teams beginning their cup campaigns before the start of September.

That has created a scheduling problem for Chelsea and Fulham, with both clubs having been drawn at home in the cup.

Looking through the fixtures for the next round of the Carabao Cup, the southern section of the draw makes it clear that 27 August is set to be a hectic night in West London.

Chelsea have been drawn at home to Luton Town, while Fulham will host AFC Wimbledon, something that is not meant to happen because of restrictions linked to policing and transport.

With Sky Sports selecting Blues v Whites for a Monday night slot on 17 August, the Carabao Cup ties would normally have been staged on the Thursday night in order to allow 72 hours of rest.

As a result, Chelsea's meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion and Fulham's away game at Sunderland were both shifted to Sunday slots.

But that has a knock-on effect in the EFL, because Wimbledon and Luton are both due to be in League One action on the Saturday after their cup ties. If those Carabao Cup matches are played on the Thursday, then those Saturday league fixtures would need to move to the Sunday.

And if you are still with this, moving those League One fixtures to the Sunday creates another issue, because the following Tuesday already has a full League One programme scheduled.

That could affect another four matches, which may then need to be moved to the Wednesday. That would mean either teams having to play twice within 48 hours, or supporters having to alter their travel arrangements.

Date

Affected games

Saturday, 29 August

Wimbledon vs Wigan

Saturday, 29 August

Mansfield vs Luton

Tuesday, 1 September

Burton vs Wimbledon

Tuesday, 1 September

Wigan vs MK Dons

Tuesday, 1 September

Luton vs Stockport

Tuesday, 1 September

Reading vs Mansfield

This is not the first time the EFL has had to make adjustments because of fixture congestion.

The third round of the competition is now seeded to make sure teams playing in Europe do not clash with one another. In 2019, Liverpool played Aston Villa on 17 December at 19:45 GMT before taking part in the Club World Cup semi-final in Qatar the following day at 17:30.

Is anyone else starting to feel that there might simply be too much football?