Arsene Wenger's woes against Jose Mourinho showed no signs of abating as Chelsea eased to a 2-0 win over Arsenal, while Manchester United did not have too much trouble in dispatching Norwich City in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup.
Wenger has never won against Mourinho on eight previous occasions and once Cesar Azpilicueta put Chelsea in front in the first half, that record never really looked like changing too much as Arsenal were dumped out before the quarterfinals of the Capital One Cup for the first time since 2002.
Carl Jenkinson, one of eight changes made by Wenger from the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, failed to deal with a looping ball inside the box, with Azplicueta nipping in to poke home ahead of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski - there were shades of the goal scored by Fernando Torres against Manchester City, and Chelsea's luck seems to working for them at the moment, and in true Mourinho style they are definitely running with it in spades.
Arsenal failed to click into their attacking gear, with Nicklas Bendtner in particular having a night to forget, and despite some decent possession in the second half, the game was put to bed by Juan Mata, among the ten players that Mourinho brought in for Tuesday's game.
The Spanish playmaker, who despite showing his class time and again, is still to prove his mettle to Mourinho, smashed home a sumptuous long-range effort from just outside the Arsenal area on 66 minutes to send Chelsea through.
Wenger had earlier just brought on the likes of Mesut Ozil as he looked for some inspiration, but on a night when the Gunners were quite poor and Chelsea rarely needed to get out of comfortable gear, there was only going to be one winner.
At Old Trafford, Javier Hernandez just continues to do what he always does - score goals - as United eased to a 4-0 win over Norwich.
Hernandez, who scored the winning goal in that dramatic 3-2 win over Stoke at the weekend, and among the nine changes made by David Moyes on Tuesday, opened the scoring in the 20th minute from the penalty spot after Leroy Fer was adjudged to have brought down Adnan Januzaj.
Chicharito then added the insurance goal nine minutes into the second half, heading home at the second time of asking off a cross from Alexander Buttner.
Norwich's night was compounded by the loss of Robert Snodgrass after a nasty clash of heads, before it got worse with late goals from Phil Jones and Fabio.
Elsewhere, English Premier League side Fulham was knocked out of the Capital One Cup by Birmingham City in a 4-3 thriller. Hugo Rodallega gave Fulham the lead only for Birmingham to answer back with three goals.
Wes Morgan got the ball rolling for the former League Cup winners, before Chris Wood and on-loan Arsenal defender Ignasi Miquel made it 3-1 in favour of Birmingham.
However, Fulham made a stirring comeback with Rodallega bagging his brace and Giorgios Karagounis firing home a freekick in the 86th minute to make it 3-3.
There was to be more drama, though, as Lloyd Dyer struck immediately after to put Birmingham through to the quarterfinals.
West Ham scored a 2-0 win over Burnley, the leaders of the Championship, thanks to two goals from the penalty spot courtesy Matthew Taylor and Jack Collison.
Former League Cup winners, Birmingham City were cruelly knocked out by Stoke, despite a gallant effort with ten men.
The match ended 4-4 after extra time, before the Potters edged their opponents in the penalty shootout to book their spot in the last-eight.
Stoke were seemingly cruising at 3-1 after goals from Oussama Assaidi, Peter Crouch and Marko Arnautovic, only for Birmingham, who opened their scoring via Tom Adeyemi, to fight back in some style.
Despite being down to ten men after Wade Elliott was sent off on the stroke of halftime, Peter Lovenkrands netted twice in the final minutes to send the game into extra time.
During the extra 30 minutes, Kenwyne Jones gave Stoke the lead yet again, only for Olly Lee to equalise two minutes from the 120. However, Birmingham's resistance ended in the penalty shootout as Stoke entered the quarters for only the third time since they last won the League Cup way back in 1972.
