Capital One Cup: 10 Biggest Storylines from the Third Round

Over the past two days, the Capital One Cup has cut the amount of clubs involved in the competition from 32 to 16.

With the introduction of Premier League sides who are in involved in European play into the competition, the spotlight shone more brightly on the League Cup.

In the matches, six EPL clubs were eliminated and 12 were left standing going into the fourth round.

There are also four clubs from the lower divisions of the Football League involved in the fourth round.

But, before we look ahead to the matchups in the next round, let us look back at the biggest storylines from the third round of Capital One Cup play.

The biggest upset of the third round came on Tuesday at Elland Road as Leeds United defeated Everton, 2-1.

Everton's impressive form in the Premier League led many to believe that the Toffees would be one of the favorites to win the Capital One Cup this season.

All that speculation was brought to an end when the Championship side pulled off the big win at home.

Leeds have not played a road match in the competition yet and that trend will continue as they will host Southampton in the fourth round.

After winning League Two last season, Swindon Town have been riding a wave of confidence that not many clubs across England are experiencing right now.

Paolo Di Canio has guided his club into the fourth round of the Capital One Cup after beating Burnley, 3-1, on Tuesday.

Before their third-round triumph, the club had beaten Championship leaders Brighton and EPL side Stoke City on the road in the competition's first two rounds.

Swindon will now look to play the role of giant-killer in the fourth round as they host Aston Villa at The County Ground.

In the lowest profile of all the third-round matchups, Bradford City of League Two beat Burton Albion of League Two by the score of 3-2 in extra time.

Bradford City are now the lowest ranked club left out of the 16 clubs still playing in the Capital One Cup.

The fourth-place club in the fourth division of English football will now visit Wigan in the fourth round.

Although the match with Wigan is not the dream matchup they are looking for, Bradford City will look to prove their worth in the competition with a win against a Premier League club.

For 73 minutes of Tuesday's Swansea vs. Crawley Town match, fans of the Welsh side were nervous about losing on the road to a League One club.

The nerves were turned into celebratory cheers when the Swans came back from a goal down to win 3-2.

Danny Graham scored the equalizer in the 74th minute and Garry Monk scored the winner in stoppage time to send the Swans into the fourth round.

Awaiting Michael Laudrup and company in the fourth round will be former manager Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool at Anfield, in what could be a match with endless storylines heading into it.

Of the five all-EPL clashes in the third round, Wigan won by the largest margin.

The Latics travelled to London to face West Ham United and blew out the Hammers, 4-1.

West Ham scored the first goal of the match in the seventh minute and then Latics responded with four unanswered goals.

The star of the match was Mauro Boselli, who found the back of the net twice in the win.

The Latics will now face minnows Bradford City at home in the fourth round.

Liverpool not only advanced to the fourth round of the Capital One Cup on Wednesday but they made history as well.

Jerome Sinclair became the youngest Liverpool player to make an appearance for the first team at the age of 16 years and six days.

Sinclair came on in the 81st minute for Samed Yesil and was on the pitch for Liverpool's winning goal just a minute later.

Sinclair broke the record that was previously held by Jack Robinson, who debuted for the club at 16 years, 250 days old.

One of the biggest headlines going into Wednesday's matches was the return of Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney from injury.

Rooney was injured on August 25th against Fulham in United's second EPL match of the season.

Rooney played 76 minutes in United's 2-1 win over Newcastle before being taken off for Nick Powell.

The return to health for the England international will once again bolster United's options up front alongside Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck and Chicharito.

After winning their first EPL match of the season on Saturday, Southampton continued their winning ways on Tuesday.

The Saints won 2-0 at home over Sheffield Wednesday which advanced the club into the fourth round.

Nigel Adkins' club are looking to erase their slow start in EPL and move forward and contend to stay in the top flight for another season.

Southampton will have to fight for a result in the fourth round as they will have to visit Leeds United.

Both Chelsea and Arsenal beat up on opponents from the lower leagues of English football in the third round.

Both clubs scored six goals in their matches and both clubs had six different players score a goal.

Chelsea defeated Wolves 6-0 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday while Arsenal destroyed Coventry City 6-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

The Blues and the Gunners will be going into their EPL clash on Saturday off of wins and they should provide fans with another classic match.

One of the most shocking results from Tuesday's action was Aston Villa's 4-2 win in extra time over defending EPL champions Manchester City.

Villa forced extra time through a Gabriel Agbonlahor equalizer in the 70th minute.

In extra time, Charles N'Zogbia scored the first of two Villa goals with Agbonlahor netting the second to secure the Villa win.

Paul Lambert and company were rewarded for their win with a match against League One's Swindon Town in the fourth round instead of taking on another EPL club.