Arsenal humbled at Highbury as Fleetwood Town produce one of the biggest ever League Cup shocks

Fleetwood Town (1) 1 v Arsenal (0) 1

Loupalo-Bi 21

Gyökeres 50

Fleetwood Town win 5-3 on penalties

By Kaz Mochlinski

Football League Cup

Fourth Round

Arsenal’s collectors item of a visit to Highbury turned into one of the most memorable results in the history of the League Cup, as the champions of England were incredibly knocked out by fourth-tier Fleetwood Town.

Possibly the biggest upset ever recorded in the competition provided the greatest night in the 87-year existence of Fleetwood Town, with the Gunners going down 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

It matched Grimsby Town’s achievement a year ago against Manchester United, when the League Two side beat the Premier League giants 12-11 on penalties after a 2-2 draw. But Arsenal were supposed to be significantly superior.

Instead, the North Londoners lost a second successive penalty shoot-out, following the defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final at the end of last season by 4-3 on spot kicks, having drawn 1-1 over 90 minutes and extra-time.

Four players were in the starting line-ups against PSG at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest in May and now at Fleetwood five months later, with nine in total getting playing time in both games, so several stars were seen at Highbury.

However, David Raya, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Magalhães, William Saliba, Declan Rice, Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis were all among those absent from the matchday squad which travelled up to Fleetwood.

With a mix of injuries and players being rested ahead of the trip to Liverpool for a vital league encounter on Sunday, Mikel Arteta made nine changes to his XI at Fleetwood, giving debuts to Illan Meslier and Ceadach O’Neill.

The Arsenal manager took a calculated risk by including three very promising teenagers and hoping that his squad’s quality would overcome a lack of familiarity in any of the combinations all over the pitch.

It backfired badly and Arsenal trailed at half-time, forcing Arteta to start scrambling to introduce some of his more experienced players, beginning with Martin Ødegaard taking over as the captain and team leader.

Initially, Jurriën Timber had been the skipper, which is not a role that he is used to performing, but it was 17-year-old Marli Salmon alongside him in defence who was at fault for Fleetwood going into the lead.

The young centre-back allowed himself to be beaten one-on-one to a simple ball forward and could have conceded a penalty as well as a possible red card if Aaron Loupalo-Bi had not stayed on his feet to score.

The 20-year-old South Londoner is on loan at Fleetwood from Fulham and his capital connection gave him an added reason to celebrate his fine finish left-footed between the goalkeeper’s legs in the 21st minute.

The prospect of a shock appeared to be over when Arsenal equalised just five minutes after half-time, with Ødegaard dictating play and the 18-year-old Northern Ireland winger O’Neill providing a testing cross for the goal.

Fleetwood’s defenders for once failed to deal with the threat, and Viktor Gyökeres got to demonstrate his poacher’s instinct by scrambling the ball past the goalkeeper, scrappily but effectively for his first goal of the season.

Yet Arsenal somehow did not build on that huge momentum shift, despite throwing on more of their star names. Fleetwood’s 5-4-1 formation with a low block held out tenaciously against all of Ødegaard’s efforts to cajole his colleagues.

And Arsenal’s evening got worse when Max Dowman was sent off by the referee Michael Salisbury in the 85th minute for retaliating against Harrison Neal after a strong tackle which won the ball but caught the 16-year-old.

It was Dowman’s first red card for the club - and the Gunners’ first for 17 months - but the talented teenager was also dismissed recently when playing for the England Under-19s during the last international break.

He can have no complaints, having reacted similarly to Cole Palmer for Chelsea against Spurs on Saturday, pushing a leg into his semi-prone opponent and also kicking out and seemingly making contact with Neal.

Arteta very obviously expressed his anger and disappointment when Dowman walked past him down the tunnel, afterwards emphasising that he had told his players how important it was to maintain their emotional equilibrium in the unfamiliar environment.

Ironically, it was while playing with 10 men that Arsenal had their two best chances to win the tie in 90 minutes, but Ben White and Ødegaard were both in turn denied late on by superb saves from Jay Lynch.

Just as in the Champions League final, the Gunners had to face the deciding penalties in front of the opposition’s fans, with the rival team taking their kicks first. Just as at the World Cup for Brazil, Bruno Guimarães missed his penalty kick.

His stuttering run-up and a poor strike enabled Lynch to make the save. And the Fleetwood penalty takers never looked like missing, completing a perfect sequence of five out of five successful attempts.

The Cod Army were the minnows but in humbling Arsenal they produced one of the finest moments in their fishing harbour’s history. With a result which was no longer supposed to be possible in modern football.