It has been a tale of two halves for Karl Robinson and his Oxford side through the early portion of the season, scoring all three of their goals domestically in the second half, while conceding once in the opening 45 minutes in two of their last three league fixtures.
Over the weekend, they answered the Morecambe opener from Jensen Weirwithin eight minutes, though they were left to rue several missed chances in the second half, as they had 10 efforts on target and 66% of the possession, but could only manage a 1-1 draw.
So far domestically, they have had plenty of the ball, gaining more than 50% in four of their five league fixtures but have not been able to do much with that, scoring a goal or fewer in each of those encounters.
Those early struggles have to be a disappointment for a side who were tied for the most goals scored (82) in League One last season, finishing eighth in the table.
In just one game at this competition, Oxford have already exceeded their goal output from 2021-22, scoring twice with less than 20 minutes remaining against Swansea, before holding their nerve in the shootout.
Two of their last three second-round affairs at this tournament have been decided in a penalty shootout, with Oxford failing to score from the spot against Watford in 2020-21, while they managed to squeak by Millwall 4-2 on penalties in 2019-20.
After a slow start to the Premier League season, losing their opener 2-0 versus Arsenal, Crystal Palace have shown improvements, drawing the reigning Carabao Cup champions Liverpool 1-1 at Anfield and storming back with three unanswered goals to defeat Aston Villa on Saturday.
The second round of this competition has proven to be exceedingly difficult for the Eagles, who have been eliminated at this stage of the tournament on three successive occasions losing on penalties to Colchester United and Bournemouth, and then conceding an 86th-minute goal to Watford last season.
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While still employing defensive solidity, Patrick Viera has turned this side into a more dynamic one in the attacking third, scoring 50 goals over the previous top-flight campaign, the most in a league season for them since 2018-19 (51).
Under the tenure of the former French midfielder, Palace have transformed from a side who were primarily a counter-attacking team with Roy Hodgson, into a team who have controlled the pace of a lot of their encounters, with over 50% of the possession in two of their three EPL games this season.
They are still heavily reliant on their number 11 striker, who has scored three of their four goals so far in the domestic campaign, but they have been playing with a lot more dynamism, while being more aggressive with Viera as a coach.
