The first leg of the EFL Cup semifinals begin on Tuesday with every kick of the ball live on Paramount+. The quartet still remaining on the field is not far off the ideal make up for any knockout competition, emphatically ticking two of the requisite boxes. It’d be nice to have a true underdog among the last four but instead there’s a double dose of credible contenders for the biggest prizes across the sport — Arsenal and Liverpool — to go with two grand old names of the English game, desperate to end a lengthy trophy drought.
Every single potential final would make for a grand day out at Wembley on March 16 but which would be richest with narrative, tension and quality? Let’s find out:
4. Arsenal vs. Liverpool
Any matchup between the two best teams in England would likely be a thrill, only one of their last 24 meetings having ended goalless and their clash at the Emirates Stadium in October was a proper barnburner. Everywhere across the field there would be one-on-one battles that could change the contest. Is there any power known to man that can stop Diogo Jota scoring against Arsenal? Gabriel Martinelli vs. Trent Alexander-Arnold again? Perhaps even the return of Bukayo Saka, the prince of the Premier League lining up against its king Mohamed Salah?
All that and a game that might be the first skirmish in a clash of titans that lasts at least the remainder of the season. The Premier League title isn’t yet out of reach for Arsenal, it might not be in two months’ either given that the EFL Cup final is due to fall just after Liverpool face off against Manchester City and Newcastle. These two teams are currently the favorites for the Champions League, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they will meet either on the way to Munich or at the Allianz Arena itself.
And that’s the one slight problem with this final. I don’t need it. I’m not sure I really want it either. I’ve been on the internet in the last three months. I’ve seen the hellscape that is Arsenal and Liverpool supporters interacting with each other. We’re on for a lot more of that before the season is out. Swerving it for one weekend in March wouldn’t be too disappointing.
3. Newcastle vs. Liverpool
What more can be said but that these rankings are compiled by a child of the 1990s. Newcastle United against Liverpool: it’s giving Tino Asprilla lobbing David James, Robbie Fowler or Stan Collymore at the death, Kevin Keegan ashen faced on the advertising hoardings. Even since then you have what ‘some’ are calling The xG Game just over a year ago. It’s all the drama, Mick! I just love it.
2. Newcastle vs. Tottenham
What do neutrals want on cup final day? Simple, to gorge themselves on the agony of others. And there could be few cup finals in the English game quite as delicious as the trophyless twosome meeting like this. There have, of course, been near misses for both sides in recent years, but they were the sort that could quite easily be explained away.
Newcastle ran into Manchester United at just the wrong moment, about the only time in the past three and a half years when that team had the genuine air of one worthy of winning even fringe domestic prizes. Tottenham sacked their manager six days before running into Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. It has been a long while indeed since either of these sides have gone into a major final as favorites. For Newcastle it might actually be the 1969 Inter City Fairs Cup that is their last piece of silverware.
If both these two were to upset the oddsmakers in the semifinals, they would head to Wembley knowing they faced their best chance of silverware in a generation. Tottenham, who performed so credibly at the weekend with a threadbare defense, would hope to be back to full health. If Newcastle continue on their current trajectory with a midfield as dominant as almost any in the Premier League, they will see no reason to fear Spurs.
No reason that is, except the damage that defeat might do to them. You can hear the punditocracy already. Newcastle lose and what is this project, seemingly still many years from competing for the Premier League, actually for? Are Tottenham, 17 years without silverware, cursed for a drought as lengthy as the opponent that just vanquished them? In pure can’t imagine losing terms, there are few finals in the English game that might obviously exceed this game. There is, however, one…
1. Arsenal vs. Tottenham
The greatest rivalry in English football, transplanted 10 or 12 miles west? A first ever north London derby at a major final? Remember what we were saying earlier about the opportunities for neutral schadenfreude presented by Newcastle vs. Tottenham. Quadruple it. No, no, quintuple.
For Mikel Arteta, a second piece of silverware would be welcome, all the more so given that it would be the first won by this particular iteration of Arsenal. His selection might not have suggested as much but the Gunners manager has been at pains to note how winning this title “creates that right path” for further glory. Ange Postecoglou, meanwhile, threw quite the gauntlet at his own feet when he said in September “I always win things in my second year”.
Really though, this wouldn’t just be about winning a trophy. Maybe even more so, it’d be about stopping the other lot down the Seven Sisters’ Road doing the same thing. It’s here that Tottenham’s trophy drought really comes into force. What greater mirth could be gained for Arsenal than prolonging it, whether by months or years? How much sweeter would it be to end that against your great rivals.
Arsenal, Tottenham, in a major final? I will love it and I think I deserve it.
