Betting: Man City early Carabao Cup favourites

Maurizio Sarri's men claimed their place in the showpiece match with a penalty shootout win over Tottenham but face a tall order to beat the holders

Manchester City have been installed as bet365’s 1/2 (1.50) favourites to win the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea in February.

Pep Guardiola’s men all-but confirmed their place at Wembley thanks to a 9-0 thrashing of Burton Albion in the first leg of their semi-final, with a 1-0 victory at the Pirelli Stadium two weeks later a mere formality.

It took a penalty shootout for their opponents to be confirmed, though, with the Blues eventually prevailing over injury-hit Tottenham after the sides could not be split during 180 minutes of play.

Chelsea are out at 6/4 (2.50) to lift the trophy for the sixth time on February 24, and break a four-way tie for the second-most successful side in the history of the competition.

City are the holders and also sit on five wins, having won the tournament in three of the last five seasons, and can be backed at 10/11 (1.91) to see off the Blues in normal time.

It is perhaps no surprise to find the Premier League champions as odds on favourites since, as well as their dominance in this tournament, they have won this fixture on three of the last four occasions.

Maurizio Sarri’s outfit did win the most recent meeting 2-0 back in December and will be hoping for a similar performance to upset the book, with bet365 making them 3/1 (4.0) outsiders to claim victory within 90 minutes.

A draw, which has not occurred between these two sides since January 2015, is available at 5/2 (3.50). That would trigger extra time and potentially penalties, with bet365 offering 11/2 (6.50) on the match being settled in either of those ways.

These two sides have, rather astonishingly, only ever met twice in the 59-year history of this tournament – with the most recent of those a 1-0 win for City back in October 1993.