Fulham and Norwich City will be looking to reach the last 16 of the EFL Cup when they square off in their third-round tie on Wednesday night.
At a time when the home side occupy 11th place in the Premier League table, Norwich have recently dropped down to eighth position in the Championship.
Without Aleksandar Mitrovic in their side, life for Fulham was always going to be much tougher in their second season back in the Premier League.
However, Marco Silva can be more than satisfied with the Cottagers' start to the campaign, collecting eight points from their opening six fixtures despite only scoring on five occasions.
Aside from the surprise 3-0 reverse at home to Brentford on August 19, Fulham have generally accumulated the points that they would have anticipated.
A 1-0 victory over Luton Town was followed by a goalless draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday, a result that has kept them ticking over in the right direction.
Fulham reached this stage of the competition by coming through their London derby with Tottenham Hotspur, prevailing in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw.
Meanwhile, Norwich are playing away from home in this season's EFL Cup for the third time in a row after already travelling to Queens Park Rangers and Bristol City.
On both occasions, David Wagner's team came through by a 1-0 scoreline, but the Canaries' form has dropped off alarmingly since the second of those triumphs.
Three defeats have been posted in four outings - their solitary win coming by a 1-0 scoreline against out-of-sorts Stoke City - and eight goals were shipped in two Championship fixtures last week.
After losing 2-0 at home to Leicester City in midweek, Norwich conceded six times at Plymouth Argyle, the East Anglian outfit finding themselves 5-0 down in 59 minutes before they eventually went down 6-2 to the League One champions.
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Source Ben Knapton at SportsMole