Fleetwood v Arsenal LIVE: Carabao Cup minnows knock out champions in huge shock after Max Dowman sent off

A wonderful interview from Matt Lawlor, the Fleetwood manager. He admits his side did not practice penalties this week, as they didn’t think they would make it that far against the Premier League champions. He admits he didn’t realise the tie went straight to penalties and there was no extra time!

He told Sky Sports: “I couldn’t believe it. The biggest night in the club’s history in terms of opposition coming to town and we’ve managed to beat the champions somehow.

“We’re not egotistical enough to think we’re going to play the best team in the country and outplay them, so we had to ride our luck, deny space, deny options for them and we did that really well for the majority of the game.”

Fleetwood goalkeeper Jay Lynch, who was man of the match and saved Bruno Guimaraes’ penalty in the shoot-out, tells Sky Sports that his side were inspired by Grimsby knocking Manchester United out of the Carabao Cup last season.

“My voice has gone from organising the defence, but the whole team throughout the game were magnificent.

“To beat the English champions on penalties, credit to everyone one of these lads.

“We looked at Grimsby beating Man Utd last year. We compared it even though these are the champions. We thought ‘if we lay it all out there, let’s see what happens’.”

“Just picked my spot and put it in! Top corner and then just run like f—.

“It’s just a mad old night. The boys, we’ve been through a rough patch in the league, we stuck together. I’m so proud of them.

“We’ve just beaten the Premier League champions, it just shows how good this team are.

“Quarter-finals? We’ll think about that after the partying!”

Not since 1992, when Wrexham knocked out Arsenal from the FA Cup, had a fourth-tier side defeated the champions in a domestic cup.

Mikel Arteta told reporters following Arsenal’s defeat at Fleetwood Town that Riccardo Calafiori, Declan Rice and Noni Madueke all missed the Carabao Cup match due to fitness concerns.

“Riccardo was out, Noni was out with an ankle and Declan Rice was finished with a problem the other day. That’s why I had to substitute him [against Everton],” Arteta said.

Maax Dowman will now be suspended for Arsenal’s next three Premier League games, starting with Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.

It comes as Mikel Arteta is expected to be without his first-choice right winger, Bukayo Saka, due to injury for the next few weeks.

And Arteta also revealed that his second-choice right winger Noni Madueke could be unavailable against Liverpool due to injury.

It suggests Dowman could have been in line to start for Arsenal at Liverpool, prior to his sending off at Fleetwood.

Mikel Arteta has revealed what he said to Max Dowman as he walked off the pitch was to do with “something we discussed already before the match”.

On the 16-year-old’s red card, Arteta added: “When we prepared the context of the match, we were very clear on the things to respect, the things that emotionally we have to dominate, it was very clear.”

The teeanger was on the receiving end of a heavy challenge from behind from the Fleetwood midfielder Harrison Neal, who lunged at him from behind near the touchline.

Dowman kicked out at Neal in response to his tackle, sparking a brawl between the teams as the Fleetwood players reacted angrily to his retaliation.

The referee Michael Salisbury, who did not have VAR available, showed Dowman a straight-red card for violent conduct, leaving Arsenal down to 10 men.

In the delirium of Fleetwood Town’s victory over Premier League champions Arsenal, in perhaps the biggest shock in Carabao Cup history, there were no secrets, no hidden tactics.

Instead, manager Matt Lawlor celebrated the greatest win of his career and the most momentous night in Fleetwood’s history with disarming honesty.

Fleetwood boss Matt Lawlor was on brilliant form after his side’s victory over Arsenal, revealing that his players had not even practiced penalties this week!

“I’m not going to blag that we had some meticulous penalties, we haven’t,” he told Sky Sports.

“The lads took care of themselves. We have a 19-year-old centre back that took the last one.

“I was a little bit worried when he was walking up, but Conor [Haughey] backs himself. I was just so pleased we even took it to that and whatever happened, happened.”

Aside from the Max Dowman red card, Mikel Arteta said he had “zero” problem with his team’s attitude.

“Otherwise I would be here absolutely fuming,” he said. “I’m sad, I think we are all sad. We have a massive responsibility to carry this badge in the best possible way.

“It had nothing to do with effort or application or determination to win it, but we lack other things to, to create a much bigger margin than today, with what we produce, they really should have been shown in the scoreline.”

He also praised Fleetwood, and said: “First of all, congratulations to Fleetwood for going through to the next round in the manner they’ve done it.

“A really sad day for us. I cannot fault at all the attitude of the players, I haven’t seen anybody not doing what is required at this level but we had so much of the ball, had so many chances, so man shots and if you want the margins to be bigger than going to penalties, you have to capitalise on that.”