WEST HAM WELCOMED Declan Rice back to the London Stadium and then promptly sent him and Arsenal packing on the end of a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat.
Rice, who lifted the Europa Conference League trophy as Hammers captain last season, was back at his old club for the first time since his £105million switch to the Gunners.
But he will not be getting his hands on the Carabao Cup this season after strikes from Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen, following an early own goal by Ben White, sent the north Londoners crashing out.
Rice started on the bench as Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta made six changes to his line-up for the fourth-round clash and the most of the damage was done by the time he was called upon.
West Ham took the lead after 15 minutes when Bowen’s corner was inadvertently headed past Aaron Ramsdale by White at the near post.
Gunners keeper Ramsdale, making his first appearance since the win at Brentford in the previous round, complained that Tomas Soucek had a hold of his shirt as the ball came over and he probably had a case but, with no VAR in operation, the goal stood.
White attempted to make amends but unfortunately for Arsenal his header at the other end was not quite as accurate and Lukasz Fabianski tipped it over the crossbar, with Eddie Nketiah heading the resulting corner wide.
After the break, Ramsdale made a fine save to deny Bowen, who was sent through by Lucas Paqueta, with White completing the clearance on the goal-line.
But the second goal arrived in the 50th minute when Ghana winger Kudus collected a long ball into the box from Nayef Aguerd, skipped past Oleksandr Zinchenko and rifled a low shot through the legs of Gabriel and into the net.
Much of the build-up to the match centred around the reception Rice would receive and when he was sent on in the 56th minute the boos were quickly drowned out by a standing ovation from most of the home fans.
But, before Rice had a chance to get into the game, West Ham had a third after Bowen collected White’s headed clearance and lashed it past Ramsdale via a deflection off Jakub Kiwior.
Martin Odegaard scored a consolation goal with the last kick but it was West Ham’s night as they marched into the quarter-finals.
Across London, Benoit Badiashile scored the opening goal as he made his first appearance of the season in Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Blackburn at Stamford Bridge.
The France defender had not started a Blues match since he was injured in their draw with Nottingham Forest in May and got himself involved at both ends of the pitch in a game that also saw Reece James return to the starting XI while Republic of Ireland U-21 international Andy Moran started for the Championship side.
Raheem Sterling fired home after the break, and while the visitors had defended well, they never looked close to coming back into the contest.
Chelsea have now reached their 24th quarter-final in 33 attempts, and are one step closer to lifting a first League Cup since 2015, when Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino was in charge of runners-up Tottenham.
Everton gave their late chairman Bill Kenwright the send-off he would have wanted as ex-Burnley duo James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil played a major part in the 3-0 Carabao Cup victory over their former club.
On a night when the fanbase, which has often been divided over the role of Kenwright spanning almost two decades, rose as one to mark his death last week at the age of 78, the team ensured the occasion was marked in fitting fashion.
Tarkowski’s header opened the scoring in the 13th minute and the centre-back’s aerial prowess came to the fore early in the second half when he nodded McNeil’s header back into the danger area for Amadou Onana to poke home from close range.
Ashley Young’s first Everton goal in added time came courtesy of substitute Beto’s driving run along the byline, handing Toffees manager Sean Dyche victory against his former side, who started with Ireland internationals Dara O’Shea and Josh Cullen.
Fulham eased through to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 2004 with a 3-1 win at Ipswich.
Marco Silva’s team were up against a Town outfit that had only lost once since their promotion to the Sky Bet Championship in April, but the Premier League side showed their class in Suffolk.
Harry Wilson provided the breakthrough for Fulham in the ninth minute with a cool finish and Muniz grabbed his first goal for the club in 19 months early into the second period to put the London outfit in control.
Tom Cairney confirmed Fulham’s win with a third in the 77th minute and, while Elkan Baggott reduced the deficit late on, Kieran McKenna’s Championship promotion hopefuls suffered a rare defeat in front of a packed Portman Road crowd.
