It's that time of the season again, the top teams have entered the Carabao Cup, facing a variety of opponents from fellow Premier League sides to overachievers from Leagues One and Two.

The competition has given us plenty of thrilling encounters over the years, and Football FanCast has looked back through the record books to bring you the ten best games from the League Cup's history.

10 2011: Birmingham City 2-1 Arsenal

Sorry, Arsenal fans, this one might bring up some harrowing memories for you – and some brilliant ones for fans of Birmingham City.

The 2011 final looked like the perfect opportunity for Arsene Wenger to break his run of six years without a trophy as Gunners boss. The final was against a relegation-threatened Birmingham side, after all. That said, while it looked like an easy win on paper, games aren't played on paper.

The Midlands side opened the scoring in the 28th minute through 6 foot 7 Serbian Nikola Zigic. However, their lead would only last 11 minutes as Robin van Persie responded for the Gunners just before the break.

It was the north Londoners that were the stronger side in the second half, but a brilliant performance from Ben Foster kept Birmingham in the game, and then when Laurent Koscielny made a meal of an aerial ball in the 89th minute, the underdogs scored the winner through Obafemi Martins.

It was a genuine upset, and one that left the Gunners completely shellshocked as Birmingham City celebrated around them.

9 1988: Luton Town 3-2 Arsenal

Apologies once more to any Gooners, we promise we aren't picking on you here, but your final against Luton Town in 1988 is another example of the underdogs coming from behind to emerge victorious in a League Cup final.

Having won the competition the year before, Arsenal were firm favourites to do so again against Luton, and so when the Hatters went 1-0 up in the 13th minute courtesy of a Brian Stein goal, the expectation was that the north Londoners would soon fight back – and fight back they did.

In a three-minute spell from the 71st minute, the Gunners went from losing 1-0 to winning 2-1, and when they were then awarded a penalty in the 80th, it looked like all hope was well and truly lost for the Hatters.

However, Luton's Andy Dibble saved Nigel Winterburn's penalty, giving his side the confidence to push on – a confidence that was only fortified after they equalised on 82 minutes through Danny Wilson. The Hatters kept piling on the pressure, and on 90 minutes, they found the back of the net once again through Stein, ultimately completing the most unlikely of comebacks against a side that would go on to win the league the following season.

8 2008: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Chelsea

Another final and another upset. Granted, this one is slightly less shocking given the comparable sizes of Chelsea and Spurs in 2008, before the Blues' two Champions League wins.

That said, the result was still a shock, given the form of the two teams going into the game. Chelsea, for example, ended the season just two points off champions Manchester United. In contrast, Spurs ended up finishing all the way down in 11th place, just ten points above the relegation zone.

The game itself started as many assumed it would, with Didier Drogba giving the Blues a half-time lead as he scored in the 34th minute, but that lead wouldn't last. Spurs came out the better side in the second half and found themselves level in the 70th minute thanks to a Dimitar Berbatov penalty, and eventually won 2-1 in extra time courtesy of a Jonathan Woodgate winner in the 94th minute.

7 2014: Dagenham & Redbridge 6-6 Brentford

Now, this might not be the most well-known League Cup game given the teams involved, but it is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable games in the cup's history.

The main reason for its inclusion on this list is the sheer number of goals that were scored. The 12 goals scored in the game mean that it shares the record for highest-scoring game in the history of the League Cup – the other game features later on.

The game itself was also massively entertaining for the fact that then-League Two side Dagenham and Redbridge were able to fight back against a Brentford side from the Championship, even if they ultimately lost on penalties.

6 2010: Manchester United 3-1 Manchester City

Okay, who doesn't love a good derby? Well, the clash between Manchester United and Manchester City in the second leg of their 2010 League Cup semi-final certainly delivered all the excitement you'd expect from the fixture.

The first leg at the Etihad ended 2-1 in favour of City, so they just had to avoid a defeat at Old Trafford to get to Wembley. However, United had other ideas, and after a 52nd-minute goal from Paul Scholes and a 71st-minute goal from Michael Carrick, they were firmly in the driver's seat.

The Citizens responded with a goal from Carlos Tevez, but a 92nd-minute header from Mr United himself, Wayne Rooney, was enough to send the Red Devils into the final, where they would meet and beat Aston Villa.

5 1967: QPR 3-2 West Brom

The encounter between Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion in the 1967 League Cup final was unique for several reasons.

Firstly, it was the first final played at Wembley Stadium following the scrapping of the two-legged home-and-away format that had been used for all the finals prior. This meant that for the first time, the League Cup final was likely to come down to a single game – unless there was a replay, of course.

The second reason it was so memorable was that the game itself was a cracker.

It looked like it was going to be a rather dull affair when the Baggies found themselves two goals up at half-time thanks to a brace from Clive Clark, but within an 18-minute spell in the second half, QPR found themselves ahead thanks to goals from Roger Morgan, Rodney Marsh and Mike Lazarus.

For the first final to be held at Wembley, it was a pretty good one.

4 1976: Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle United

We're heading back in time again for this one, and a final that featured the two richest clubs in the Premier League decades before such finances entered the game.

It was City's third final – their previous two appearances also came in the 1970s – and the Toon's first final appearance. It was memorable for a couple of reasons. The game itself was a brilliant spectacle of skill and talent, with both sides putting in an excellent display and scoring some brilliant goals, specifically the winner from City winger Dennis Tueart, who scored a fantastic overhead kick to score City's second and ensure his side got their hands on the trophy.

Tueart was also a former Sunderland player who was born and grew up in Newcastle, giving the game even more drama – not that it needed it.

3 1977: Aston Villa 3-2 Everton

The last of our old-school picks is the 1977 League Cup final between Aston Villa and Everton – well, the second replay, to be exact.

Since the competition ditched two-legged finals in 1967 in favour of a one-off game at a neutral venue, only five finals have required a replay to determine a winner, and only once has there been a second replay: this game.

The first game at Wembley Stadium ended in a 0-0 draw, and the first replay was an equally dull 1-1 stalemate. So the expectations for the third game were low, so when Villa won the thrilling match 3-2, fans and neutrals were pleasantly surprised.

Captain Chris Nicholl scored for the victors, with Brian Little netting a brace, whereas Bob Lachford and Mick Lyons scored for the Toffees.

2 2005: Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool

The 2005 final of the League Cup was the fifth time the match had been played in Cardiff's Millenium Stadium and would go on to be the first trophy that Jose Mourinho would lift in his supremely successful first spell as Chelsea boss.

The game started poorly for The Special One, though, as Liverpool's John Arne Riise opened the scoring for the Reds in the very first minute of the match. The Blues would eventually get their equaliser, but it would take until the 79th minute to come, and surprisingly, it would come courtesy of a Steven Gerrard own goal.

Mourinho's infamous reaction towards the Liverpool fans remains a highlight – although he was sent off for his troubles.

Extra time saw the west Londoners score two more goals in the space of five minutes to go 3-1 up, and while Antonio Nunez would claw one back in the 113th minute, the game was gone.

Chelsea would go on to win the Premier League that year, while Liverpool would lift the Champions League – a happy ending all around?

1 2012: Reading 5-7 Arsenal

Okay, should we have a final or semi-final in the top spot? Probably. But we cannot think of a more dramatic League Cup game than Reading and Arsenal's fourth-round clash in October 2012.

Along with Brentford's clash with Dagenham and Redbridge, this is the highest-scoring League Cup game of all time.

Wenger's men were undoubtedly the favourites in the tie and were expected to get past their opponents with ease, but Reading had other ideas.

Jason Roberts opened the scoring for the home side on 12 minutes before an own goal from Laurent Koscielny and goals from Mikele Leigertwood and Noel Hunt gave them a 4-0 lead just 37 minutes into the game. The Gunners pulled one back on the stroke of half-time through Theo Walcott, but went in stunned nonetheless.

However, for as dominant as Reading were in the first half, they ultimately fell away for the second 45, as the visitors came out a different side. Olivier Giroud scored Arsenal's second on 64 minutes before Koscielny made up for his earlier error by putting the ball in the right net on 89 minutes. Walcott dramatically scored his second six minutes into injury time to send the game into extra time.

There was also the slightly embarrassing gaffe from Giroud and Francis Coquelin, though, as the pair were forced to retrieve their shirts from the crowd after they threw them in on 90 minutes, clearly believing that there was to be a replay instead of extra time.

Unsurprisingly, it was Arsenal that came out of the blocks faster in extra time, and they finally found themselves in front in the 103rd minute after Marouane Chamakh scored their fifth goal of the tie, but the game was far from done.

Reading somehow found themselves level through a 115th-minute goal from Pavel Pogrebnyak. In most games, that would almost certainly be the final act, but no, the Gunners once again came storming back as Walcott completed his hat-trick to give them their sixth. Chamakh rounded things off with a fine lob for the seventh and ended what is, without doubt, the best League Cup match of all time.

And there we have it, those are our top ten League Cup matches of all time. Are we going to have another to add to the list before the season's end? Only time will tell.