2016–17 EFL Cup

The 2016–17 EFL Cup was the 57th season of the EFL Cup, formerly known as the Football League Cup, featuring all 92 clubs from the Premier League and the English Football League. It began on the week commencing 8 August 2016 and concluded with the final on 26 February 2017. The cup did not have a sponsor following the withdrawal of sponsorship from Capital One after four years as the Capital One Cup, but was renamed the EFL Cup after the Football League was rebranded as the EFL.
Manchester United won its fifth title after a 3–2 win over Southampton in the final.
Manchester City were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Manchester United in the fourth round.

Format

The League Cup is open to all 92 members of the Premier League and the English Football League and is divided into seven rounds, organised so that 32 clubs remain by the third round. Clubs involved in European competition during the season receive a bye to the third round, the remaining Premier League clubs enter at the second round, and the remaining Football League clubs enter at the first round.
The League Cup is played as a knockout cup competition with each tie, except semi-finals, being played as a single match with the winner advancing to the next round. The semi-finals are played over two legs, with each club playing one leg at home, and the club that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs advances to the finals. If the score is level after 90 minutes, or if the aggregate score is level for semi-finals, then thirty minutes of extra time is played, divided into two fifteen-minute halves. If the aggregate scores in semi-finals are still level at the end of extra time the tie shall be decided by goals scored away from home counting twice, according to the away goals rule. If the tie is not decided during extra time, it is decided by a penalty shoot-out.
In the first five rounds, the club drawn first played at their home ground, and in the semi-finals the club drawn first played the first leg at home. The final was played at Wembley Stadium, a neutral ground.

Club allocation

A total of 92 clubs from the top four English tiers participated in the 2016–17 EFL Cup.

Distribution

The tournament was organised so that 32 clubs remained by the third round. Seventy of the seventy-two clubs in the English Football League entered in the first round. In the second round, the thirteen Premier League clubs not involved in European competition as well as the two highest-ranked Championship clubs relegated from 2015–16 Premier League entered the cup, with Arsenal, Leicester City, Manchester City, Manchester United, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United all receiving a bye to the third round. In the third round the aforementioned clubs involved in European competition entered the competition.

Clubs involved in European competition entered at the third round.
The remaining Premier League clubs and two highest-ranked Championship clubs entered at the second round.
The remaining English Football League clubs entered at the first round.

	Clubs entering in this round	Clubs advancing from previous round
First round	24 clubs from EFL League Two 24 clubs from EFL League One 22 clubs from EFL Championship	N/A
Second round	2 clubs from EFL Championship 13 Premier League clubs	35 winners from first round
Third round	7 Premier League clubs	25 winners from second round
Fourth round	No other entries	16 winners from third round
Fifth round	No other entries	8 winners from fourth round
Semi-finals	No other entries	4 winners from fifth round
Final	No other entries	2 winners from semi-finals

Round and draw dates

The schedule was as follows.

First round

Entry

A total of 70 clubs played in the first round: 24 from League Two, 24 from League One, and 22 from the Championship. The draw for this round was split on a geographical basis into 'northern' and 'southern' sections. Teams were drawn against a team from the same section.