The reward for Manchester United and Manchester City seeing off their respective opponents in the third round of the EFL Cup is a Manchester derby in the fourth. After United beat Northampton Town to end a three-match losing run and City saw off the challenge of fellow Premier League club Swansea City, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will meet again, this time in the fourth round of the cup.
Going into the Northampton match in a lose-lose situation – if United won, it would be just what was expected of them and if they lost, well... -- Mourinho's team huffed and puffed again, but eventually did enough to blow the League One team's house down.
Michael Carrick, playing in his first match since the Community Shield, opened the scoring for the Premier League side in the 17th minute, before Manchester United found themselves in a spot of bother as Alex Revell equalised just before halftime from the penalty spot.
Just when it looked like there might be a chance of a massive upset, Ander Herrera struck the crucial third goal of the match, taking a pass from Marcus Rashford before finding the back of the net on 68 minutes. Seven minutes later, Rashford made the game safe and United were breathing a sigh of relief.
Not for long, though, because soon after they found out that they would be playing Manchester City, the team that beat them convincingly 2-1 in the Premier League earlier this month, in the fourth round.
City topped Swansea 2-1, thanks to goals from Gael Clichy and Aleix Garcia. Gylfi Sigurdsson netted for the Welsh side in the 90th minute, but there just wasn't enough time to find an equaliser and force the match at the Liberty Stadium into extra time.
In other all-Premier League clashes, Southampton beat Crystal Palace 2-0, through goals from Charlie Austin and Jake Hesketh, while Stoke City's woeful start to the season continued, when they went down 2-1 to Hull City. Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring for the home team, but Ryan Mason equalised right on halftime, before Markus Henriksen struck a late winner for Hull.
Vincent Janssen opened his Tottenham account by scoring in the 5-0 win over Gillingham. Christian Eriksen grabbed a brace, while Joshua Onomah and Erik Lamela also scored in the comfortable win.
EFL Cup results: Fulham 1-2 Bristol City; Northampton Town 1-3 Manchester United; Queens Park Rangers 1-2 Sunderland; Southampton 2-0 Crystal Palace; Stoke City 1-2 Hull City; Swansea City 1-2 Manchester City; West Ham 1-0 Accrington; Tottenham 5-0 Gillingham.
