When is Carabao Cup fourth round draw? Stoke City potential opposition, dates and seeding decision
Stoke City have had to wait patiently to discover who they will face next in the Carabao Cup.
The Potters have made it into the fourth round, or last 16, thanks to wins away at Carlisle United and Middlesbrough plus a shoot-out win at the bet365 Stadium against Charlie Adam's Fleetwood Town.
But this stage of the competition has been prolonged as every club in the country is forced to accommodate an expanded Champions League programme. Arsenal and Liverpool were both handed home draws to be played tonight against Bolton Wanderers and West Ham respectively. Newcastle United's tie against AFC Wimbledon has been switched to St James's Park (Tuesday, October 1) following flooding at Wimbledon's Plough Lane headquarters.
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When is the Carabao Cup fourth round draw?
The fourth round draw will take place tonight (Wednesday, September 25) following the conclusion of Liverpool-West Ham. That match is scheduled to kick-off at 8pm and, if it does not go to penalties after 90 minutes, should be done and dusted by around 9.45pm.
Sky Sports have not been in a hurry to get on with the draw, however, and have made everyone sit through post-match analysis and interviews before getting down to business. The draw should take place at 10pm but the general meandering and procrastination meant that the third round draw didn't take place until well after 10.30pm.
How to watch the Carabao Cup draw
The draw will be aired live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Ultra HDR. Subscribers can also follow the draw as it happens via a live stream on the Sky Go app.
You can sign up to our Stoke City WhatsApp service here and get the draw sent directly to your phone, without having to worry about all the Liverpool and West Ham chatter. More information on that here.
Potential opponents and ball numbers
Unlike the third round draw, which had a seeded element for teams competing in the Champions League and Europa League, the fourth round draw is completely open, meaning any team can face any other.
Who do you want Stoke to pick out or avoid from this lot?
1 Aston Villa
2 Brentford
3 Brighton and Hove Albion
4 Chelsea
5 Crystal Palace
6 Leicester City
7 Manchester City
8 Manchester United
9 Preston North End
10 Sheffield Wednesday
11 Southampton
12 Stoke City
13 Tottenham Hotspur
14 Arsenal or Bolton Wanderers
15 Liverpool or West Ham United
16 AFC Wimbledon or Newcastle United
When is the Carabao Cup fourth round?
The fourth round matches are scheduled to begin in the week commencing Monday, October 28 - so either Tuesday, October 29 or Wednesday, October 30. That's between Stoke's Championship trip to Sheffield United on Saturday, October 26 and a home match against Derby County at 12.30pm on Saturday, November 2.
Does extra-time come into play in round four?
It is straight to penalties if level after 90 minutes in every round until the semi-finals.