Having seen Premier League sidesEverton and Bournemouth both fall out of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night to lower league opposition, the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham were all eager to avoid any potentialcupsets.
United in particular were in desperate need of a win, having been defeated in their last three outings, while West Ham have also been in desperate form so far this season.
Manchester United opened the scoring at Northampton Town, with Michael Carrick side-footing home before Alex Revell equalised from the penalty spot before half time. Ander Herrera helped Unitedregain their lead in the second half, before Marcus Rashford, a substitute alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, capitalised on a horrible goalkeeping error to send his side through to the next round.
Manchester City took the lead at Swansea just after the restart, with Gael Clichy the unlikely scorer, and secured their place in the competition when Alex Garcia fired home after good play from Jesus Navas. Gylfi Sigurdsson did manage to pull one back for the Swans late on, but Pep Guardiola's side held on to go through.
The Bet365 Stadium was the place to be for great goals, with both Stoke's Marko Arnautovic and Hull's Ryan Mason strikes equally impressive, before Markus Henriksen won the game in injury time with a right footed strike.
Ryan Mason just scored this worldie for Hull City, what is going on tonight ⚽�⚽� pic.twitter.com/pXEJWnSMVT
Tottenham eased through in their tie against League One'sGillingham, with Christian Eriksenscoring a spectacular 25 yard strike before doubling his side's lead in the second half following impressive work from Erik Lamela. Vincent Janssen got in on the act by converting a penalty for his first Spurs goal, while Josh Onomah finished beautifully to also grab his maiden Spurs goal and Erik Lamela also scored with a tidy finish.
Fulham's Cauley Woodrow missed a penalty at Craven Cottage as Bristol City beat their Championship rivals thanks to goals from Aaron Wilbraham and Tammy Abraham after Lucas Piazon had given the home side the lead.
Championship side QPR led Sunderlandat Loftus Roadthrough Sandro's strike, but Paddy McNair equalised 10 minutes later. The Northern Ireland international then bagged an unprecedentedsecond to send his side safelythrough.
West Ham started their tie against Accrington Stanley nervously, and brought on Payet, Lanzini and Antonio in the second half to try and break down their lower league opposition. With the game looking likely to head into extra time, Dimitri Payet scored a trademark free-kick to spare the Hammers' blushes at the London Stadium and send his side safely through.
Charlie Austin, who has been in terrific form recently, scored a penalty for Southampton to take the lead against Crystal Palace before youth product Jake Hesketh doubled their lead as the Saints marched into the next round.
FULL TIME: #SaintsFC 2-0 #CPFC@chazaustin10 and @JakeHesketh fire Claude Puel's side into the fourth round of the #EFLCup! pic.twitter.com/RyxwdLgztg