EFL Cup round-up: Chelsea survive seven-goal thriller while Man City ease through

Chelsea survived a seven-goal thriller against Wolves to progress to the EFL Cup quarter-final on a night that also saw Manchester City ease past Swansea City and wins for Crystal Palace, Arsenal and holders Newcastle.

The pick of the action undoubtedly came at Molineux, where goals from Andrey Santos and Tyrique George inside the opening quarter of an hour gave Chelsea a commanding lead over the side currently rooted at the foot of the Premier League.

Estevao then added a third before the break with Enzo Maresca’s side cruising.

It seemed like a Blues win was all but a foregone conclusion by half-time. However, Tolu Arokodare began the Wolves fightback when he pulled one back shortly after the restart before David Wolfe reduced the deficit to one on 73 minutes.

Things got even more nervy for the visitors when Liam Delap was sent off late on. However, a total Chelsea capitulation failed to materialise when, with just a minute of the 90 remaining, Jamie Gittens hit a sublime strike with the outside of the foot to restore the two-goal advantage.

Wolfe then doubled his tally in stoppage time but the 10-man visitors saw out the remaining seconds to move into the last eight.

Swansea City 1-3 Manchester City

Pep Guardiola’s side made light work of their Championship opponents with a comfortable victory in south Wales.

But City were given an early scare when Goncalo Franco broke the deadlock for the hosts on 12 minutes.

Any hopes of a cup shock were halted in the 39th minute, with Jeremy Doku levelling the tie to calm the nerves of the visiting support.

In the absence of Erling Haaland, who was rested for the game, City were looking for goals from elsewhere. And they arrived with less then 15 minutes of the match remaining.

First, Omar Marmoush rifled a fierce strike into the roof of the net from a tight angle before Rayan Cherki wrapped up the victory in the 94th minute with a neat finish inside the box.