Chelsea drawn against Liverpool in marquee League Cup 3rd round matchup

The League Cup, sponsored by Carabao once again, did away with the some of the extra shenanigans from last year, such as holding the draw in the middle of night over in Thailand or wherever. Instead, the draw for the third round was back at a more usual 7pm local time, and televised on Sky Sports, so now we could see it, too, which was probably welcomed by the two people who might actually pay close attention to this.

But since the draw is still unseeded, you do get matchups like Chelsea playing Liverpool in the opening round for both teams. Which is exactly what we have this year. Ouch.

The two rivals last met in the hot-blooded 2014-15 semifinals (Costa vs. Škrtel, among others). Now we meet in the third round. Probably a bit less hot-blooded this time.

The match will be played the week of September 24, so between the West Ham (away) and Liverpool (home) games. So that means we play Liverpool twice in the span of just a few days, once away, once at home. Double-ouch.

On the bright side, this is sure to be televised.

The draw in full, featuring Frank Lampard’s Derby County going up against Manchester United at Old Trafford:

West Brom vs. Crystal Palace
Arsenal vs. Brentford
Burton Albion vs. Burnley
Wycombe Wanderers vs. Norwich City
Oxford United vs. Manchester City
West Ham vs. Macclesfield Town
Millwall vs. Fulham
Liverpool vs. CHELSEA
AFC Bournemouth vs. Blackburn Rovers
Preston North End vs. Middlesbrough
Wolves vs. Leicester City
Spurs vs. Watford
Blackpool vs. QPR
Everton vs. Southampton
Manchester United vs. Derby County
Nottingham Forest vs. Stoke Cite