Arsenal Out Of EFL Cup To Fourth-Tier Fleetwood Town In Largest Upset In English Football History

Look away, Arsenal fans.

The Gunners, who are at the peak of their powers under manager Mikel Arteta, have just suffered their worst loss in possibly the entirety of the team’s 140-year history, and certainly their worst in England.

Fleetwood Town pulled off one of the most incredible upsets you will ever see in sports, taking down the Champions of England and Champions League finalists on penalties in the fourth round of the EFL Cup, a tournament between the English soccer pyramid’s top four tiers.

They aren’t even four tiers apart. Arsenal sit atop the Premier League while Fleetwood Town sit 18th in the fourth tier, League Two, where relegation threatens their place in fully professional football. 84 spots lower in the pyramid, Fleetwood had won just three games this season.

Fleetwood Town were 28/1 to win in regulation, which, looking back, certainly could have happened. They were 12/1 to advance to the next round.

It may have been written in the stars for the home team, who were on their back heels for the first few minutes before a stoppage occurred for a blinking light in the sky. The seven-minute delay was caused by an unidentified drone in the sky, forcing the players to leave the pitch for safety reasons until it was sorted out.

A stretch, maybe, but this delay might have given Fleetwood Town time to settle against the champions. They went on to look very competitive with Arsenal for the next twenty minutes and capitalized with a goal from Aaron Loupalo-Bi, who sent just over 5,000 fans at Highbury into chaos.

If you asked the fans whether they would leave the game happy after that moment, no matter the score, they’d say yes.

Arsenal dominated the rest of the first half, looking more like their usual selves. They didn’t have their starters playing, but their depth is some of the best in the world, and their mix of second and third strings should have had plenty of quality to blow out Fleetwood Town.

They couldn’t capitalize in the first half thanks to strong defending from Fleetwood Town, but they removed the threat of a second goal.

Arteta had had enough at half-time, subbing in a few starters to try and take over the game. He didn’t want to do that, needing rest for the weekend’s match against Liverpool in the Premier League.

Viktor Gyökeres finally broke through for Arsenal in the 50th minute, scoring his first goal of the season.

The match seemed to be in Arsenal’s hands until chaos broke out late, as 16-year-old Max Dowman went down and retaliated, earning an iffy, yet still immature, red card. Arsenal had to play the last 5 minutes and change without their star prodigy, and Fleetwood Town held them off to get to a penalty shootout to decide who would advance.

Fleetwood Town had already won, drawing the Premier League Champions as a fourth-tier side. But the Cinderella story didn’t end there.

The first seven penalties were taken and scored before Bruno Guimarães stepped up for Arsenal, only for Fleetwood’s Jay Lynch to save his stutter step kick. The crowd was on cloud nine. It was not Arsenal’s night. Conor Haughey smoked it into the top left corner, and the fans rushed the field as Arsenal were officially knocked out of the tournament.

A story of how amazing sports can be: Fleetwood Town’s roster earned just $2.8 million, compared with Arsenal’s $1.4 billion. Around 500 times the amount. Theoretically, Fleetwood Town could be relegated to the National League at the end of this year and never return to fully professional soccer, less than a year after beating the country’s top team. That’s the beauty of the English soccer system.

A night that neither team will forget. One of the darkest nights in Arsenal’s storied history is the greatest night Fleetwood Town may ever see.