Arsenal had 26 shots and one goal, and League Two Fleetwood knocked the champions out of the Carabao Cup on penalties
Fleetwood, 84 places below Arsenal in the English game, won the shootout 5-3 at Highbury after Viktor Gyökeres cancelled out Aaron Loupalo-Bi’s opener.
Oct 28, 2026
Arsenal had 26 shots at Highbury Stadium and scored once. Fleetwood Town, 18th in League Two, scored once as well, and then took all five of their penalties to knock the Premier League champions out of the Carabao Cup 5-3 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw.
Jay Lynch saved Arsenal’s fourth kick, from Bruno Guimarães, and Conor Haughey, a 19-year-old defender, scored the winner. Fleetwood fans poured onto the pitch. The club is in the quarter-finals of the League Cup for the first time.
A drone, then a goal
The game had barely started when referee Michael Salisbury stopped it because a drone was flying over the ground. The players were sent off the pitch for a short time, and play resumed eight minutes later.
Arteta had made nine changes from the 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday, with the trip to Liverpool on Sunday in mind, and one of them cost him in the 21st minute. Harrison Neal played the ball through midfield, Aaron Loupalo-Bi, on loan from Fulham, got the better of 17-year-old Marli Salmon, and he slid it through the legs of Illan Meslier, who was making his Arsenal debut.
Arsenal’s first shot on target did not arrive until the 29th minute. Salmon was taken off at half-time, along with Jurriën Timber, and Martin Ødegaard and Ben White came on.
Gyökeres levels, Dowman sees red
The changes worked, up to a point. Viktor Gyökeres poked in the equaliser from close range in the 50th minute, his first goal of the season, and Arsenal spent most of the second half in Fleetwood’s half. Kai Havertz hit the side netting, Myles Lewis-Skelly fired wide from close in, and Lynch kept out White and Ødegaard late on. Fleetwood’s back line of Rhys Bennett, Haughey and Shaun Rooney blocked just about everything else.
In the 85th minute Neal went in hard on Max Dowman, and the 16-year-old kicked out at him. Salisbury showed a straight red card, and the cameras caught Arteta having words with Dowman as he walked off. Asked afterwards what he had said, Arteta replied it was “something that we discussed already before the match”.
There was no extra time in this round, so the tie went straight to penalties. Ronan Coughlan, Neal, Will Davies and Andy Cannon all scored for Fleetwood, and Ødegaard, Havertz and Gyökeres all scored for Arsenal. Guimarães then hit a tame kick that Lynch saved, and Haughey put his past Meslier to finish it.
“A very sad day”
Arteta did not go after his players. “There is nothing to criticise the players for their attitude, their application,” he said. “But we conceded a really poor goal to start with that gave them some momentum.” He called it “a very sad day”, and added: “You don’t capitalise, then you cannot go through to the next round.”
Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor, who was in tears at the final whistle, kept it simple. “I just can’t believe it,” he said. “We had to ride our luck, we had to deny space.”
Where this leaves both sides
Arteta can defend the effort. Twenty-six shots and one goal against the 18th-placed side in League Two is harder to explain, and Dowman’s kick left them a man down at the point where they were pushing hardest for a winner.
Arsenal lost the final to Manchester City in March and have not won this competition since 1993, so this one will sting. It does not change much else. They are still level on points with City at the top of the Premier League, and the game that matters more is at Anfield on Sunday.
Fleetwood will find out who they play in the quarter-finals when the draw is made after Liverpool and Chelsea meet on Wednesday. Lawlor’s side have now beaten Chesterfield, Shrewsbury, Sheffield United and the champions of England, and they will not much mind who comes out of the hat next.