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Southampton: Saints’ Carabao Cup tie against Everton moved

By Marc Walker

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: Mario Lemina of Southampton and Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton battle for the ball the Premier League match between Everton FC and Southampton FC at Goodison Park on August 18, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 18: Mario Lemina of Southampton and Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton battle for the ball the Premier League match between Everton FC and Southampton FC at Goodison Park on August 18, 2018 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
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Southampton’s Carabao Cup Third-Round tie away to Everton has been moved to the 2nd October after a suitable date couldn’t be found in the allotted week.

The week commencing the 24th September was originally when the match was going to be played, but Liverpool’s home tie with Chelsea on the Wednesday of the week would have seen potential safety and logistics concerns arise ahead of Southampton’s arrival.

Everton are due to play Arsenal on the Sunday before, meaning that they could only play in the cup on the Wednesday.

This fixture was also going to mean two trips to Liverpool within a week for Saints after they play at Anfield on 22nd September. An away game against Wolves the following weekend was only going to add to a testing time for Mark Hughes’ side.

Saints got to the Second-Round stage thanks to a 1-0 victory over Brighton at the end of August; their first competitive win of the season, which was then followed up by a 2-0 triumph over Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

Next. Mixed results for Elyounoussi and Vestergaard. dark

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 28: Charlie Austin of Southampton celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s first goal during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton at American Express Community Stadium on August 28, 2018 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 28: Charlie Austin of Southampton celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s first goal during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton at American Express Community Stadium on August 28, 2018 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) /

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Their progression also meant that they beat their 2017/18 efforts in the League Cup where they were knocked out at the Second-Round stage to Wolves.

Saints fans will be aware of their team’s decent record in the competition in recent years after they reached the final in 2016/17 and were unlucky to lose 3-2 to Manchester United.

Current boss Mark Hughes has a good record himself after guiding Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City and Stoke City to the semi-finals in different spells.

He has spoken about wanting to take the competition seriously, but also the importance of rotating the squad and giving other players some minutes to impress.

Whether that remains the case at Everton remains to be seen. A tough schedule around the game would hint at changes but the Toffees are likely to play a strong side themselves considering the options they have at their disposal.

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