Chelsea and Fulham already causing Carabao Cup draw chaos with clashes set to cause fixture congestion

WEST London rivals Chelsea and Fulham are already causing chaos with the football calendar ahead of tonight’s Carabao Cup draw. The teams play each other in the Premier League on Monday 24 August, meaning their Carabao Cup second round ties – which are due to be played that same week – will have to be played on the Thursday. Chelsea and Fulham’s Prem opener has caused Carabao Cup chaos Credit: EPA Tonight’s draw will reveal who will have to play on the Thursday in Round 2 Credit: YouTube / Sky Sports Football Those Thursday night games could then have a knock-on effect for the EFL. Should either of the two London teams be drawn against EFL opponents – which is highly likely due to 18 of the 24 sides in tonight’s draw playing below the top tier – the next TWO rounds of EFL fixtures may have to be moved. Sign up for the Chelsea newsletter Thank you! With a mid-week set of games scheduled in the EFL for the following week there is little wiggle room for fixture organisers. In order to avoid two games in 48 hours, if an EFL side draw Chelsea or Fulham, their fixture on Saturday 29 will have to be pushed back to the Sunday. But this creates another problem, as their following mid-week fixture will have to be on the Wednesday, to once again prevent two games in 48 hours. The teams’ failure to finish in the European places last season is what has caused the absolute shambles. The only scenario which would favour the EFL would be Chelsea and Fulham drawing each-other or another Prem side. However, this would then cause its own headaches, as both Chelsea and Fulham are already scheduled to play on the following Saturday. Most read in Sport Carabao Cup 2nd Round south numbers 1 AFC Wimbledon 2 Birmingham City 3 Brentford 4 Cambridge United 5 Cardiff City 6 Charlton Athletic 7 Chelsea 8 Coventry City 9 Fulham 10 Ipswich Town 11 Leicester City 12 Leyton Orient 13 Luton Town 14 Millwall 15 Norwich City 16 Peterborough United 17 Reading 18 Southampton 19 Stevenage 20 Tottenham Hotspur 21 Walsall 22 Watford 23 West Ham United 24 Plymouth Argyle or Exeter City BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS And to complicate matters even more, Fulham and Chelsea are not usually allowed to play at home on the same day with their stadiums being in such close proximity. Organisers, and police, will be desperate for at least one of them to be drawn to play away. Tottenham Hotspur will also be part of the draw which starts tonight at 7:20pm on Sky Sports YouTube channel. Alternatively, fans can watch it as part of the build-up to tonight’s Devon derby Carabao Cup tie between Plymouth Argyle and Exeter. Comment now