It is more than 20 years since Arsenal played at Highbury but their trip to League Two Fleetwood – and a stadium of the same name – did not bring back fond memories as they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup on penalties. It was the team with red shirts and white sleeves that triumphed, but on this occasion it caused one of the greatest upsets in English football history.
Aaron Loupalo-Bi and Viktor Gyökeres exchanged goals in normal time but Arsenal were unable to find a winner, despite being the dominant force, as Fleetwood battled to the end. The home manager, Matt Lawlor, was almost in tears, unable to cope after the tension was released when Conor Haughey smashed the ball into the top corner to settle the shootout.
That came after Jay Lynch had saved from Bruno Guimarães, a former warehouse worker stopping the Brazilian international. It is the storylines everyone wants but so rarely gets in the sanitised modern football world.
Fleetwood were aiming to earn £400,000 from the night but got something priceless in the end. Everyone in attendance will never forget they saw the fourth-tier side knock out the Premier League champions. Of course they had to ride their luck and were helped by Max Dowman’s debatable sending off but football is rarely about logic, it is one of emotion. This is once in a lifetime for the Cod Army, for anyone at their level, and they enjoyed it.
A year ago Lawlor was not even a football manager, he never played professionally and started his coaching career with the Manchester United Foundation. Lynch had spent much of his early career in non-league, only dreaming of playing a team who narrowly lost the Champions League final in the spring.
Everyone was expecting a routine victory, even with Mikel Arteta giving youngsters the chance to impress. If Arteta wanted to test his youngsters then Marli Salmon’s naivety was shown up by Loupalo-Bi, on loan from Fulham.
He has been learning his trade in the fourth tier this season and put into practice the skill of using his body against a defender, spinning and holding off the 17-year-old before slotting under Illan Meslier to bring lift-off for the second time of the night.
By that point the game had already had a six-minute delay due to a drone being flown above the pitch. The referee Michael Salisbury had to take the players to the sidelines while the police searched for the culprit outside the ground. It was an unordinary start to what became an extraordinary night on the Fylde Coast. It had started with a plethora of pyrotechnics that created a red haze across the pitch and, frankly, it never dissipated, literally or metaphorically.
The first half was one of toil for Arsenal, unable to create anything meaningful, constantly being thwarted by the disciplined defence, well organised by Lawlor and his staff. The Gunners were pedestrian against a team happy to watch them go through the motions. Kai Havertz missed the best chance to equalise before the break but his header was wayward, summing up a difficult match for him.
After the break it was different as Martin Ødegaard came on to become the quarterback for Arsenal, creating the rhythm they had sorely lacked. He brought cohesion and intensity, getting them back into the game.
It was Gyökeres who bundled home the equaliser and few would have doubted Arsenal going on to win the match but Fleetwood held firm.
The home side had been direct from the start, accepting their limitations and knowing the conditions would help them. Swirling wind helped hold the ball up in the sky and confused defenders not used to the gales by the sea.
Fleetwood’s robust play irritated Arsenal and Dowman was wound up, getting himself sent off for reacting to enforcer-in-chief Harrison Neal. He was the second Gunners teenager to learn a valuable lesson of life outside the top flight after Salmon was exposed for the goal.
It may have been harsh but it was needlessly petulant from Dowman on an already challenging night for his side. Mikel Arteta had a word with him on the way off. What did Arteta say? “Something that we discussed already before the match.”
Arsenal had two late chances through Ben White and Gyökeres to settle it before the need for spot-kicks, but Lynch produced two fantastic saves as the clock went past 90 minutes to ensure it went to a fittingly dramatic finale, where he could be the hero again on a great night for football and the town of Fleetwood.
