Watford’s previous League Cup journey to Manchester resulted in a big shock nearly 46 years ago.

That was on October 4, 1978, when Luther Blissett made national headlines with two headed goals as Graham Taylor’s team rallied from behind to defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford.

YouTube has 40 minutes of BBC Sportsnight highlights, including a post-match interview with Elton John, for those who wish to remember the night.

The Hornets have another chance to surprise the formbooks in Manchester today when they face City at the Etihad Stadium, and with bookies putting Watford as high as 20/1 to win in 90 minutes, an away victory would be a huge shock.

“Yeah, it would,” said Tom Cleverley.

“In my opinion, they are the finest football squad in the world, and we are up against it.

“But there are a number of factors that I believe have worked in our favor: they only have one day to prepare, they don’t have the largest of teams to rotate, and they have three or four enormous games either side of our game, which is perhaps a less important match for them.

“I realize I’m grasping at straws a little, but let’s focus on ourselves.

“The main objective for me is we become a lot more hard to create chances against than we have in the last two games.”

Cleverley was part of the Watford team that lost 8-0 at the Etihad Stadium in September 2019, the biggest defeat in his professional career; the second worst came when City thrashed the Hornets 6-0 at Vicarage Road in 2017.

In that 8-0 thrashing, City led 5-0 after 18 minutes, with a start that made subsequent bad openers appear fairly impressive.

What recollections does Cleverley have from that afternoon?

“Not good ones, to be honest,” he said.

“We weren’t at it that day, but they were, and everything they struck went in.”

“I’ve not thought about it in preparation for this game but I’m fully aware that in the latter stages of my career as a player I didn’t have a very good record against City.”

Indeed, City have won their past 15 games with Watford, with Cleverley appearing in seven of them before retiring.

The Citizens have not lost at home since Brentford defeated them 2-1 on November 12, 2022, in the Premier League.

In the 672 days since, City has played 48 home games, winning 39 and drawing the remaining nine.

They haven’t lost a home cup game, domestic or European, since January 29, 2020, when Manchester United defeated them 1-0 in the League Cup semi-final second leg.

That night was one of just six instances that City failed to score at the Etihad Stadium since the start of the 2020/21 season; over the same timeframe, they scored five goals or more at home 21 times.

However, they were eliminated from the Carabao Cup in the third round last season, falling 1-0 to Newcastle at St James Park.

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