The majority of Premier League sides enter the Carling Cup this evening, those competing in Europe do not debut until round three, but while last season’s FA Cup provided any number of shocks, the lesser domestic competition again produced a final between two heavyweights; Spurs beating Chelsea 2-1 in one of the more memorable contests.

That has been the pattern over the past few seasons, just one of the last six finals has failed to feature a representative from the 'Big Four’, and with the divide between the elite and the rest increasing all the time I expect that to continue.

While the general view, and it’s a correct one, is that the bigger clubs rest their star men in the Carling Cup more often than not it should not be forgotten that the perceived also-rans do exactly the same.