LONDON, Oct 25, (AP): Wolverhampton Wanderers head to Manchester United for a League Cup match on Tuesday having shown it could give the defending champion a tough time — if manager Mick McCarthy picks a strong enough team. McCarthy was warned by the Premier League last season for picking a weak side to play United as part of an effort to target other games he felt were realistically winnable. McCarthy was arguably vindicated as Wolves avoided relegation, but Saturday’s strong performance in a 2-0 defeat by Premier League leader Chelsea and the chance of reaching a cup quarterfinal may persuade McCarthy to field his first-choice side his time.

Wolves fell behind early at Stamford Bridge but competed well and had chances to equalize before Salomon Kalou killed off the game with a second goal nine minutes from the end.
“We can take some confidence from it into the next few games,” Wolves midfielder Matt Jarvis said. “We played really well and maybe deserved something out of the game.
“After Saturday’s game I think you can see we’re not afraid of playing against anyone. We’ve played really well at Stamford Bridge and if we can keep playing like this in the next run of games I’m sure we’ll get something.”

United fielded a mix of first-team regulars and backup players in the last round, when it won 5-2 at Scunthorpe, and is likely to do so again at Old Trafford.
Also Tuesday, Birmingham host Brentford, Ipswich host Northampton, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Leicester host West Bromwich Albion and Wigan manager Roberto Martinez meets his former team when Swansea visit the DW Stadium.
Birmingham will be without midfielder Alexsandr Hleb because of a twisted knee.
On Wednesday, Aston Villa host Burnley, Newcastle host Arsenal, and West Ham — the Premier League’s bottom side — host Stoke.
After winning his first two matches as manager of Villa, Gerard Houllier is without a win in three matches after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Sunderland.

“This team needs to have more faith and belief in itself,” Houllier said. “Maybe because we are changing a few things, the philosophy of play. It will take time. We know where we are going but sometimes it looks as if they can do very well and they don’t believe in that.
“We need to be more clinical, more lethal.”
West Ham, meanwhile, will hope the return to cup competition provides some respite from its struggle against relegation in the Premier League.
The Hammers led Newcastle 1-0 on Saturday but quickly conceded an equalizer and capitulated in the second half to lose for the fifth time in nine league games.

“We do have an intelligent group of supporters who know what good football is and have seen it over the years,” West Ham defender Matthew Upson said. “They have every reason to be quite bamboozled as to how we can play so poorly in the second half.
“It felt like we really the impetus to score again in the first half and all of a sudden we were on the back foot. We have to look at those things and why there was such a swing in the performance.”