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The draw for the 2018-19 League Cup, once again known as the Carabao Cup, takes place today before the last game of the opening round between Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland.
There will be no seeds in the draw this year but grouped into North & South regions. Everton are in the North and have ball number 7 in the draw. The draw starts at 7pm BST (2pm EST) and will be live on Sky Sports.
Everton enter the competition at the Second Round stage, along with the twelve other teams that finished below them in the Premier League last season. The clubs that qualified for European competition get a bye and will join the tournament in the next round.
There are a number of rule changes for the competition this season.
No extra-time
The biggest change this year is that extra-time has been abolished and go straight to a penalty shootout if the two teams are tied after 90 minutes.
The League Cup has seen bigger teams field weakened sides over fatigue concerns, hence the justification for this move.
Revert to ABAB penalties
The ABBA system was trialled in penalty shootouts in EFL competitions last season, and it appeared to cause more confusion among supporters than anything else.
This season we go back to the traditional ABAB method.
Seeding abolished
Previous to this season all the teams in the draw were seeded depending on how they finished the previous season. For this year’s competition there will be no seeding with clubs from all divisions able to play each other.
The first two rounds will be regionalized into North and South however for to minimize midweek travel times.
Yellow cards do not contribute to league suspension
Yellow cards picked up in the Carabao Cup (like any other FA tournament) contribute to suspensions in the Premier League, with five bookings in all domestic competitions leading to a one-match ban.
This season however, bookings in the Carabao Cup will only remain in the League Cup.
VAR to be rolled out throughout the competition
Video Assistant Referees were used in the Carabao Cup semi-finals and final last season, but this year they will be utilized in all rounds for matches being played at Premier League grounds only.