Patrick Barclay: The penny’s dropped as Chelsea and Southampton bosses take cup seriously

Did you notice the strength of the Chelsea team Jose Mourinho sent out at Derby last night? Or the furious reaction of Southampton manager Ronald Koeman to defeat at Sheffield United?

Gone, it seems, are the days when the Capital One Cup could be treated lightly. And it will be the same tonight, as Brendan Rodgers takes Liverpool into a fascinating quarter-final at Bournemouth and Mauricio Pochettino prepares Tottenham for an attempt to reverse their Premier League defeat by Newcastle at White Hart Lane.

I’m guessing but, of the four managers on duty tonight, Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe might be the least desperate to win — his priority might be the extraordinary feat of making his club’s modest residence a Premier League ground next season.

With the others, a penny seems to have dropped. Cups matter. As Arsene Wenger appreciated when, at Wembley in May, the pressure on Arsenal was briefly relieved.

An under-fire Rodgers was making appropriate noises yesterday — “to be successful is winning trophies” — and, while we are unlikely ever to return to the mid-20th century sense of the FA Cup being at least as desirable as the League title itself, I sense a belated recognition that there can only ever be one champion per season.

This season, it won’t be Liverpool and, given that it’s even less likely over the next few years to be Tottenham or Newcastle, I’ll be surprised if Pochettino or Alan Pardew don’t throw the kitchen sink at a place in the last four.

If it was good enough for Mourinho, who declined to give John Terry, Eden Hazard or Cesc Fabregas a night off at Derby, it’s certainly good enough for them.

Further progress would be a useful boost for the new regime at Spurs. It simply has to work; they can’t keep changing managers. And, while everyone there remembers 2008 and the false dawn of League Cup triumph over Chelsea, the Wembley magic might just be worth another try.