Charlton Athletic have won all three of their competitive matches this season: 3-1 at Cheltenham Town in the previous round of the League Cup, 2-1 at home to Derby County, and 2-1 away at West Ham United on Saturday. Tottenham Hotspur have played once. They lost 3-0 at Brentford.
That is the gap Roberto De Zerbi has to talk his way across tonight, and he has chosen not to hedge. "For me, the Carabao Cup is like the Premier League," he said at Tuesday's press conference. "We are not in the condition to make differences [between the competitions]." What he wants is consistency, which he put at five straight wins, and a squad that treats winning as a habit rather than an event. "We have to change the mood. And we can."
The team that lost at Brentford was not the one he wants. He fielded an entirely new back four and a new midfield pair, with Pedro Porro, Micky van de Ven, Mateus Fernandes and Dominic Solanke all unavailable through fitness problems he traces in part to a pre-season tour of New Zealand and Australia. Porro and Van de Ven are back tonight as substitutes and Solanke may start. James Maddison is out for two weeks with the shoulder injury he picked up at Brentford.
The other selection question is the new arrival. Sávio, signed from Manchester City for £75m in a deal that could reach £85m, is available after his paperwork cleared in time, and has taken the No 17 shirt Cristian Romero wore before his move to Atlético Madrid. De Zerbi rates him among the world's best at beating a man one against one; the end product is the part that needs work, with seven goals for City in all competitions and two in 53 Premier League appearances. Asked about the player's insistence on being called Sávio rather than Savinho, De Zerbi was unmoved. "Listen, I lost 3-0 in the first game in the Premier League … do you think for me it's a problem if Savinho becomes Sávio?"