Capital One Cup accumulator: Arsenal and Liverpool lead picks

Predicting the starting line-ups of the stronger clubs in the Capital One Cup is one issue that makes life difficult for punters, but there are four teams that look primed for victory in the fourth round.

Victories for Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool look worthy prices to back, while Wigan overcoming a two-goal handicap against Bradford pays a combined 19/1.

Arsene Wenger would seemingly settle for a trophy of any kind after an extensive drought since 2005 and the early signs are that this competition is being taken semi-seriously.

Theo Walcott, Andrei Arshavin and Olivier Giroud are all in the squad to face Reading and with the hosts still awaiting a first clean sheet of the season, they can trouble the scorers.

Arsenal have come out on top in all nine previous meetings with Reading in all competitions and love this particular competition, reaching the quarter finals in each of the last nine seasons.

Aston Villa are another club that will put out their big guns as they have a relatively small squad, with Stephen Ireland and Darren Bent almost certain to be reinstated to the starting line-up.

Bent has four goals in six games in the competition and can feed off the supply of Ireland, who is the best player in the Villa squad to pick the perfect pass.

Villa have also not lost to a club from a lower division in their last 13 cup encounters and only once in 22 League Cup showdowns with opposition from outside the top two divisions.

Liverpool have home advantage against Swansea, who are also struggling defensively, with goalkeeper Michal Vorm out, alongside both full-backs Angel Rangel and Neil Taylor.

Brendan Rodgers has done a good job juggling his squad thus far and can mastermind a triumph over his former club.

Finally, Bradford are without their captain and both first-choice centre backs for their trip to Wigan, who have already secured back-to-back 4-1 successes in this competition over Nottingham Forest and West Ham.

There is little to suggest they can’t win by three goals again here.

Capital One Cup selections
Liverpool to beat Swansea @ 4/9
Arsenal to beat Reading @ 17/20
Aston Villa to beat Swindon @ 6/5
Wigan (-2) to beat Bradford @ 11/5

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.