Curse of the Carling Cup

Reaching the Carling Cup final may provide teams with a day out in Wembley but teams who reach the decider tend to struggle thereafter.

Since beating Cardiff on penalties at the end of February Liverpool have lost four of their five league games with their only respite being a league win over Everton, while Stoke were beaten in the FA Cup.

Cardiff have endured a similar slump, winning just once since to lie eighth in the Championship.

It was a similar story last season where Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League three months after beating Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley.

The Gunners, still in the hunt for a treble at the time, won just two of their 11 remaining league games and crashed out of the Champions League and FA Cup.