Key events
Team news
Fleetwood Town: Lynch, Rooney, Haughey, Potter, Neal, Bennett, McLean, Helm, Batty, Evans, Loupalo-Bi.
Subs: Pradic, Andrew, Cannon, Davies, Thomas, Murphy, Coughlan, Robertson, Cirino.
Arsenal: Meslier, Timber, Mosquera, Salmon, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly, O’Neill, Dowman, Havertz, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, White, Odegaard, Eze, Konsa, Guimaraes, Hashi, Washington, Harriman-Annous.
Referee: Michael Salisbury (Lancashire)
Will Unwin
To give everyone a flavour of conditions, it is blowing a gale around the rather quaint Highbury Stadium, almost blowing my laptop onto the pitch. Mikel Arteta will not be too worried about his players adapting to the conditions and will see a front pairing of Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyökeres as integral to killing this game off as soon as possible.
Fleetwood, however, are here to give the Gunners a bloody nose at the very least. They know how to utilise the conditions to their favour and will be straight into the faces of the Premier League champions. They may sit 18th in League Two, but they saw off Sheffield United in the last round and will fancy doing likewise in front of a packed ground.
Some sad news to bring you: Peter Dobing, the captain of Stoke’s 1972 League Cup winning side, has died at the age of 87.
Dobing made 377 appearances over a decade with the Potters and also played for Blackburn and Manchester City. He captained Stoke to glory as they beat Chelsea 2-1 to clinch their first (and only) major trophy, before his playing career was ended by injury just one year later.
Stoke said in a statement: “All at Stoke are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our ’72 League Cup-winning captain Peter Dobing at the age of 87. The thoughts and sincere condolences of all are with Peter’s friends and family at this immensely difficult time.”
Some essential pre-match reading here from Will Unwin, our man on the Fylde coast tonight.
Preamble
Some Arsenal fans spent years pining for one more game at Highbury Stadium; tonight, they finally get their wish. This particular Highbury is 250 miles northwest of Islington – the home of Fleetwood Town, a team the Gunners have never played before.
While their League Two form could hardly be less remarkable (18th place, with 14 points from 13 games), Fleetwood have picked off Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and second-tier Sheffield United in the Carabao Cup without conceding a goal, earning a last-16 glamour tie against the English champions.
With a trip to Anfield looming on Sunday, Mikel Arteta is expected to give his weariest stars a rest. Young talents like Marli Salmon, Ceadach O’Neill and, yes, Max Dowman are expected to start. They can expect testing conditions at a seaside ground where “the wind goes in all directions”.
Of course, even a depleted and under-experienced Arsenal side will be hot favourites to advance, but this has all the makings of a classic midweek Cup test. Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/oct/27/fleetwood-town-v-arsenal-carabao-cup-fourth-round-live
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