Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video Arsenal crashed out of the Carabao Cup last night, going down 5-3 on penalties to Fleetwood Town after a 1-1 draw in normal time. Mikel Arteta made changes, as you’d expect, with starts for young players Marli Salmon, Max Dowman and Ceadach O’Neill, while thus far peripheral senior men like Martin Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie also came in for what ought to have been valuable playing time. He also decided, somewhat curiously in my opinion, to start both of his strikers, with Viktor Gyokeres up front and Kai Havertz behind him in midfield. There was a surreal start to the game when the referee spotted a drone hovering above Highbury Stadium and stopped play. I’m unsure what the big issue was however. Was he worried about player safety, TV rights? Whatever it was, we were stalled for 8 minutes until it was sorted out, not ideal for both sets of players on a night when conditions weren’t exactly clement. When play began again Arsenal dominated the ball but struggled to test the home side. Hincapie headed a Dowman cross over, before the 16 year old had a clear sight of goal but scuffed his right-footed shot wide. In the middle, Gyokeres looked unhappy as if the ball should have been squared but the shot was the right decision, the execution of it was the issue. Then, Fleetwood scored. We weren’t competitive enough around the second ball after a long kick from the goalkeeper, they played it forward, and Aaron Loupalo-Bi got the wrong side of Salmon before firing home through the legs of Illan Meslier. It’s not great defending from the 17 year old, but it’s one of those moments as a young player that are inevitable and that ultimately you learn from. He was superb against Ipswich in the last round, and given how badly we fared further forward with more experienced players, I don’t think we should give this much more than a passing mention. Decent balls in from Dowman gave Havertz and Timber headed chances which they spurned before the break, and that was the extent of our attacking play in that first period. So, it was no surprise when the manager made changes at the break with Ben White and Martin Odegaard replacing Salmon and Timber. It meant a bit of a reshuffle, and early in the second half we found an equaliser. O’Neill, who looked lively on the left, played a decent ball in from that side, Fleetwood’s defenders didn’t deal with it, Gyokeres – as he does too often – fell over, but on his way down touched it beyond the keeper for 1-1. And that should have been the point at which the game changed in our favour, but what we produced subsequent to the goal was just dismal. Odegaard made us a little bit better, but around him few others stepped up. Havertz was abysmal, Gyokeres completing 5 of 9 passes all night against League Two opposition illustrates the limitations of his game in stark fashion. When we need a focal point up front, he just cannot provide it. Eberechi Eze came on and made little difference, and while perhaps there’s some mitigation for Martin Zubimendi playing with a broken nose, he completely failed to impose himself on the game in any meaningful way for a player of his calibre. And then everything was compounded by the red card. After a bit of a scramble near the touchline there was a strong tackle on Dowman, one which took ball but also slid through on the man. He took exception to it, there was a very slight retaliatory movement with his leg which sparked a bit of a melee (Ben White was right on the scene to protect his teammate), and the referee adjudged it sufficient to send Dowman off. I think it’s very, very harsh. I don’t think the challenge from the Fleetwood player is quite as bad as some make out, but I can understand why Max reacted. He shouldn’t have done that, but you can’t send a player off for that. It wasn’t a kick, it wasn’t violent conduct, and I think an experienced referee should have been able to sort that out with a couple of yellow cards. Whether Arsenal will appeal the severity of a three match ban remains to be seen, but I think they have a good case to do so if they choose. What I really didn’t like, however, was Arteta’s reaction as Dowman went off. He clearly gave him an earful, and said afterwards, “Something that we discussed already before the match.” A little earlier there had been a confrontation between Odegaard and a Fleetwood player, and I think we can all understand the manager warning his players not to rise to any kind of bait. Nevertheless, Max Dowman is 16, and the manager’s job is to protect him. It doesn’t mean he has to be mollycoddled, it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t face the internal consequences of being shown a red card, but that should have played out in the dressing room, not on the touchline and on live TV. Arteta has done incredible work at this football club, but he’s not infallible, and in my opinion he got this one really wrong – regardless of how frustrated he might be with the reaction from Dowman. There was a late flurry from Arsenal as we looked to avoid penalties. The keeper made a very good save from Ben White, Odegaard had a shot which required another stop, and just before the end there was a really presentable chance for Havertz from an Eze cross which he headed tamely wide with no conviction. A moment which summed his own performance, and that of the team. Feeble. So then penalties. Fleetwood made no mistake with five solid spot kicks, we made one through Bruno Guimaraes, and that was that. A massive win for the home side, and fair play to them for it. It’s a night that will live long in the history of that club, and this is what cup football can throw up. It’s not the first time we’ve been the giant killed by a lower league side, but I really don’t think we can have any complaints because of how poorly we played overall. Congrats to them. Afterwards, Arteta said: First of all, congratulations to Fleetwood for going through the next round. The manner that they have done it, and for us a very sad day. There is nothing to criticise the players for their attitude, their application. The determination – you could see that was there from the start. The team keeps trying and trying with the ball with chances, shots and especially shots that we had not to score many more goals. Then you don’t capitalise, then you cannot go through to the next round. Unfortunately, we are out. I will say I think that’s a very generous assessment of our performance. Protective almost, in a way the comments about Dowman were not. There’s a big difference between having a lot of the ball and making that possession count, and while nights like this can happen, upsets are part of football, too many players out there last night let themselves down. Ahead of a big game at Anfield at the weekend, it’s not ideal, because some of them are going to have to play, and if they’re anything like they were last night, we’ll be in trouble. If you already harbour some concerns about our attacking potency, last night will done nothing to assuage them. I can’t sit here this morning and say I’m devastated at going out of this competition, but this was a night which produced many more questions than answers. If you were generous you’d say we were rusty and the changed nature of the side meant we lacked cohesion. The other assessment might be that we were absolutely terrible on the night, and even if some players are trying to find some rhythm and match sharpness, we ought to have produced a lot better than that embarrassing load of shit. I tend to connect far more with the latter than the former. Any defeat at Arsenal creates fallout. That’s something we’re going to have to contend with ahead of the weekend, and the lack of a post-game press conference means legitimate questions about the performance, some individuals, and the manager’s reaction to the sending off will have to wait until Friday, so this is gonna linger like an eggy fart in lift for a few days more. Right, I’ll leave it there for morning. Have a good one folks. The post Fleetwood Town 1-1 Arsenal (5-3 pens): A dismal night at Highbury appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.