Several Premier League sides went out of the Carabao Cup but Stoke City were one of only two to lose to lower league opposition, in the shape of Bristol City.
Stoke were undone at Ashton Gate by two goals in 10 second-half minutes from Famara Diédhiou and Matt Taylor, following Burnley – beaten in a penalty shootout by Leeds – in bowing out in the third round to a Championship side. Mark Hughes had no complaints though. “We were poor and they played very well,” he said. “They will have a good season playing like that, but we have to be much better. I am very disappointed because this is a competition we wanted to do well in. Maybe I got the changes wrong, but I was expecting a lot more from my players. I know we will be better against Chelsea on Saturday, but that isn’t much consolation at the moment.”
Swansea City did make it into the last 16 as Alfie Mawson and Jordan Ayew struck in the second half of their 2-0 success at Reading. Afterwards Paul Clement hailed the development of the 23-year-old Mawson.“I think he’s really maturing,” said the Swansea manager. “He looks physically strong, he dealt with a lot of situations by reading the game well. He’s very dangerous in the opposing box, he’s good on the ball and he’s part of that defensive unit that are doing very well at the moment.”
Bournemouth claimed a home victory over Brighton for the second time in five days as the Norway international Josh King steered in a winner nine minutes into extra time, leaving Eddie Howe delighted. “Josh is off the mark now and Jermain Defoe got off the mark on Friday,” he said. “That’s good for them and good for us. Confidence is important for your strikers.”
Elsewhere, Leicester City won 2-0 at home to Liverpool, West Ham beat Bolton 3-0, while 1-0 was sufficient for Tottenham at home to Barnsley and Crystal Palace against Huddersfield.
The second-half dismissal of Aston Villa’s captain, Tommy Elphick was the turning point of his side’s game, with Middlesbrough winning 2-0 at Villa Park thanks to two goals from Patrick Bamford. Elphick was shown a second yellow card by Stephen Martin after a clumsy challenge on Bamford, who dispatched the resulting penalty after 58 minutes. The defender had been booked in the first half for a late tackle on George Friend
Bamford’s header eight minutes later sealed the game but Villa’s manager, Steve Bruce, felt that Elphick’s header early in the game from a Henri Lansbury free-kick should not have been ruled out for offside. “It was a red card, I’m not disputing that, but the goal he scored was onside. It shouldn’t have been chalked off. You could say it wasn’t the best of evenings for Tommy and the sending-off was the turning point.”
Villa suffered a first home defeat of the season with Bruce fielding a raw-looking side, with none of the starting lineup having begun the Championship game at Barnsley three days earlier. Many of Villa’s supporters had shunned the game too, with only 11,197 showing up.
“We have a huge week ahead with three games, that’s why I left out 11 players,” Bruce added. “I wanted to keep players fresh but we’re all disappointed to have gone out and if the linesman had done his job properly we could still be in the competition.”
Garry Monk, the Middlesbrough manager, said: “The whole team performed well and we dominated from start to finish.”
Bristol Rovers, the only League One club involved on Tuesday night, went out at Wolves thanks to Bright Enobakhare’s 98th-minute winner during an extra-time period in which Tom Lockyer was dismissed for the visitors.
Mario Vrancic’s first two goals for Norwich helped them to a comfortable 3-1 win at Brentford, with Josh Murphy scoring their third at Griffin Park, although Brentford’s Yoann Barbet missed a penalty when they were losing 1-0.
Brentford did eventually score but Josh Clarke’s goal came in injury time.
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