Fleetwood Town Ousters Arsenal From League Cup on Penalties

Arsenal exited the English League Cup on Tuesday night after losing a penalty shootout to Fleetwood Town.

The fourth-tier side eliminated the reigning Premier League champion, a result Fleetwood asked on social media whether it was the largest cup shock in history. Arsenal's squad carries an estimated value of $1.6 billion, compared with $3 million for Fleetwood, and the two clubs are separated by more than 80 positions in the English league structure. The match was Fleetwood's first sellout at Highbury Stadium in more than a decade, according to the report.

The ground holds 5,300 spectators and contains four parking spaces, a limitation that required Arsenal representatives to park on nearby streets. Fleetwood Town competes in League Two, where the club sits 18th among 24 teams after winning one of its last eight league matches. The team's next match is Saturday's home fixture against Bristol Rovers.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has collected five trophies, including last season's Premier League championship and a Champions League final appearance.

Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor, 38, received his first senior managerial appointment on an interim basis in January and took the permanent role in March. He grew up in Poulton-le-Fylde. "I was trying to not cry and I didn't," Lawlor said. "I've managed to hold it. My family, my little boy here, we're all local."

Fleetwood is a coastal community in northwest England with roughly 26,000 residents, known locally for producing Fisherman's Friend lozenges. The team carries the nickname Fishermen, and its supporters are called the Cod Army, a reference to the area's fishing trade. Highbury Stadium, which opened the week's upset, shares a name with Arsenal's former home used from 1913 to 2006.

Jamie Vardy played for Fleetwood for one season and helped the club move from the fifth tier into the English Football League before his 2012 transfer to Leicester for 1 million pounds ($1.3 million). That transfer fee stood as the record for a Non-League player until it was surpassed two months ago.

Andy Pilley chaired and owned Fleetwood until 2023, when he resigned shortly before receiving a 13-year prison sentence for fraud connected to energy contracts; he lost an appeal in February. Pilley invested more than 10 million pounds ($13 million) in the club, financing the renovation of Highbury Stadium. His son, Jamie Pilley, assumed ownership in May 2024. Under Andy Pilley, Fleetwood recorded six promotions in 10 seasons, entered the Football League in 2012, and reached League One in 2014, where the club finished fourth in 2016-17 before relegation to the fourth tier in 2024.

The crowd responded to Lawlor as the result settled. "I was turning around and people were screaming at me in the crowd and people that I knew and grew up with," Lawlor said. "Obviously that's really special and really emotional to do something that special early in my career as well."

Lawlor said the match carried the feeling associated with being a football fan. "Football's getting a little bit more, I don't know, clinical and removed," Lawlor said. "And that to me, there was that feeling that we all get as football fans. That was what you kind of live for, isn't it?"

The League Cup, in which Fleetwood recorded this result, has been contested for 66 years.