Stoke eased into the 4th round of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night, dismissing Fulham 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium and will no doubt be hoping that, after also defeating Shrewsbury in the 2nd round, they make it a hat trick of home games when the draw for the last 16 is made on Saturday.
Thee cup is now wide open after defeats for four of the seven sides who came int the competition in the last round, who all qualified for Europe. After losing only one Premier League, Blackpool, in the 2nd round, nine departed the competition in total during round three, meaning over a third of the remaining sides are from the lower leagues.
Along with the ten Premier League teams, of which only Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Birmingham finished above the Potters last season, there are four Championship sides in Burnley, Swansea, Leicester and Ipswich, and one from both League One, Brentford, and League Two, Northampton.
The numbers for the draw, which is due to take place at around 12.15pm on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday programme, shown on Sky Sports News are as follows.
1) Arsenal
2) Aston Villa
3) Birmingham
4) Brentford
5) Burnley
6) Ipswich
7) Leicester
8) Manchester United
9) Newcastle United
10) Northampton
11) Stoke
12) Swansea
13) West Brom
14) West Ham
15) Wigan
16) Wolves
Ties are due to be played on the week commencing 25th October, which means the Potters will almost certainly play on Wednesday 27th October as they play Manchester United at home on Sunday 24th October, before travelling to Everton on Saturday 30th October.