The Carabao Cup returned tonight to remind everyone that English football has a fourth competition, and Manchester United are using it to detour from their regularly scheduled crisis. Sunday's derby defeat was blamed somewhat on VAR's ineptitude, which conveniently glossed over the poor performance from Michael Carrick's charges. The manager had seemingly fixed a lot of Old Trafford's problems after Ruben Amorim's sacking, but many have resurfaced since his permanent appointment, despite a £150m summer spend on midfielders. If United lose their next two matches - tonight against Brighton and away to Fulham on Sunday, before an elongated international break - plenty of words will be written to fill the void.

United's team news was dominated not by tactics but by the absence of a 15-year-old. JJ Gabriel has had his eye on the Old Trafford exit for a while and is eyeing a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona, with United struggling to convince him his future lies in Manchester. Karl Darlow gets his debut in goal as he looks to prove himself a suitable backup for Senne Lammens. Mason Mount is given a start, because he is such a talented player and is well-liked by all those who deal with him, but struggles to stay fit and properly fit into a system. Maybe Carrick is the man to get the best out of him. Poor Joshua Zirkzee cannot get a game in the Carabao Cup; not sure he will get many minutes in the months to come.

Manchester United line up: Darlow; Mazraoui, Yoro, Heaven, Dalot; Andrey Santos, Tielemans; Lacey, Mount; Rashford; Sesko. Subs: Lammens, Amass, Maguire, Fernandes, Mainoo, T. Fletcher, Cunha, Mbeumo, Zirkzee. Brighton: Steele; Costinha, Vuskovic, Boscagli, Stuijk, Hadjam; Chema, O'Riley, Gross; Yalcouye, Kostoulas. Subs: Verbruggen, Dunk, Rutter, Promise, Osman, Kadioglu, Gomez, Ayari, De Cuyper.

At Everton v Wolves, the prime minister Andy Burnham and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney were in attendance at Hill Dickinson Stadium, which raises obvious questions. Justin Kavanagh emailed: "So how do these things work? Will Andy Burnham swap suit jackets with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney after 90 minutes or do they make like Prem players and stand in front of the executive boxes and performatively clap the big wigs for their political support at the end? And will Burnham play on the left, or take the Number 10 role?" Gary Naylor added: "I see that David Moyes has declined to rotate his squad for tonight. I presume the car park attendant, the tea lady and Andy Burnham all forgot to bring their boots."

Everton: Pickford; Maitland-Niles, O'Brien, Keane, Mykolenko; Garner, Hackney, Dewsbury-Hall; Dibling, Grealish; Barry. Subs: Travers, King, Branthwaite, Tarkowski, George, Johnson, Alcaraz, Graham, Olayiwola. Wolves: Virginia; Tchatchoua, Toti, Krejci, Konan; Traore, James, Doyle, Chirewa; Neave, Jimenez. Subs: Ruddy, Trippier, Bueno, Muntesi, Armstrong, Traore, Bellegarde; Djiga, Mane. Grealish was fouled by Tchatchoua, who was rightly booked.

Coventry City v Aston Villa screams of two teams keen to jump out of the competition - one because they need to focus on surviving after collecting zero points from four games, the other because it has bigger fish to fry. Maybe that is too negative; the nature of it being a Midlands derby will liven it up for everyone involved. AnhTuan Nguyen Huynh wrote: "It has become clear to me that Coventry City's Frank Lampard is a slow learner. The trio of Grimes, Yirenkyi, and Tchaouna are Coventry's strength. Not seeing Grimes and Tchaouna in the starting lineup is a concern." Coventry: Bentley; Latibeaudiere, Amenda, Mfuni, Thomas; Yirenkyi, Hamer, Torp, Sakamento, Gboho, Cherif. Subs: Wilson, Pinnock, Grimes, Simms, Mason-Clark, Onyeka, Tchaouna, Bidwell, Thomas-Asante. Aston Villa: Bizot; Wan-Bissaka, Harwood-Bellis, Mings, Ruggeri; Bogarde, Barkley, McGinn; Mbaye, Abraham, Hemmings. Subs: Suzuki, Cash, Lindelof, Kamara, Buendia, Jackson, Garnacho, Manzambi, Alysson.

This is as big as it gets for Fleetwood Town as they host Championship Sheffield United in search of a glorious upset. Amid two all-Premier League ties and another that was a top-flight fixture last season, maybe we should focus on the Cod Army coming up against Chris Wilder to see who reaches the fourth round. Fleetwood: Lynch; Rooney, Bennett, Potter, Andrew; McCann, Neal, Helm; Evans, Loupalo-Bi. Subs: Pradic, Davies, Thomas, Murphy, Haughey, Coughlan, Robertson, Cirino, Dempsey. Sheffield United: Cooper; Doherty, Tanganga, McGuinness, Norrington-Davies; Arblaster, Rothwell, Riedewald; Campbell, Cannnn, Donovan. Subs: Davies, Choudhury, Ayew, Kitching, Shackleton, Brereton-Diaz, Baptiste, Peck, Bamford.

The 7.45pm games began at Fleetwood and Everton. At Highbury, Ollie Arblaster had a very early chance but his shot was blocked. Fleetwood pushed for a goal: a dangerous cross from the right was almost turned into his own net by Tanganga but Cooper smothered. Helm received the ball after a corner was cleared to the edge of the box, took it down and smashed a shot, which Cooper did well to parry; the rebound was headed wide. Meanwhile, Max Dowman continues to be good, and Mikel Merino can see similarities to a certain Lamine Yamal, which is high praise. Barry Glendenning is on Football Daily duty, and Niall McVeigh has the European tinge if you want it.