Charlie Nicholas
Football Expert
Charlie Nicholas' Carabao Cup predictions: Man Utd to win thriller
Last Updated: 20/12/17 6:59pm
Charlie Nicholas is back to serve up his predictions for the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, with two ties remaining.
After Man City and Arsenal progressed on Tuesday night, it's now up to Manchester United, Chelsea, Bournemouth and Bristol City to complete the semi-final line up.
Here's what Charlie is tipping for Wednesday's games...
Bristol City v Manchester United (Wednesday, 8pm, live on Sky Sports Football)
This could be an awkward one for Manchester United. Bristol City are flying at the moment, certainly scoring a lot of goals, and strong enough to have a go at home.
However, Jose Mourinho has his best player back in Paul Pogba and he'll also give Zlatan Ibrahimovic a start so they'll have the physicality and ability to get the job done.
Jose loves this cup. Even with Manchester City cantering away at the top of the league he can say 'we're in the semis of this, final 16 of the Champions League and second in the league' and you can't really argue with that.
Charlie's RAB
Find out what Charlie is tipping up in his 50/1 Leicester v Man City RequestABet here.
Charlie predicts: 2-3 and Pogba to score first (110/1 with Sky Bet)
Chelsea v Bournemouth (Wednesday, 7.45pm)
Bournemouth got a seeing-to on Sunday but the slightly good news is Chelsea, whom I covered on Soccer Saturday, were very flat against Southampton.
Antonio Conte will have one eye on Everton away on Saturday so I think there will be changes with the likes of Michy Batshuayi and Charly Musonda given another chance.
However, their visitors are in a relegation battle and after a 4-0 battering, they'll need every ounce of energy to prevent an even bigger hammering when they visit Manchester City on Saturday.
Charlie predicts: 2-0 and Batshuayi to score first (12/1 with Sky Bet)
Tuesday's games
Leicester 1-1 Manchester City (3-4 on pens)
This a really good cup tie, despite the fact Leicester were brought crashing back down to reality at the weekend following their fine run.
Manchester City will make changes but just look at the names coming in. Gabriel Jesus will probably start, Yaya Toure will probably come in alongside Ilkay Gundogan, who will want to get some more minutes.
I can see the young lads Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz getting their chances in a similar amount of changes to the Shakhtar game, which was significant enough to disrupt their rhythm despite the quality of players.
I backed Shakhtar to get the win and I can see another upset for Pep Guardiola's men here with the pace and power Leicester can break with.
Charlie predicted: 2-1 and Okazaki to score first
Arsenal 1-0 West Ham
I think the West Ham boys will be given a deserved rest here. I'm a strong believer in momentum but it has been an intense run for them and they were fantastic at the weekend.
David Moyes is a friend of mine but it was always going to be a graft for him. The tools were there with the likes of Marko Arnautovic and Winston Reid, who was being touted as a £20m signing for Liverpool 18 months ago, but it has been impressive how quickly he's got them all pulling in the same direction.
However, the league has to be the priority here despite climbing a few places and I'd expect seven or eight changes.
Arsenal will play some of the kids again but I can see them wearing the visitors down, with the quality of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott being enough to get the job done.
Charlie predicted: 2-0 and Walcott to score first
