🕟 Kick Off: 20:00 GMT

🏟️ Venue: Highbury Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Michael Salisbury

📹 VAR: Not in operation

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Bukayo Saka: Picked up an injury against Bayern Munich which has kept him out of action since. Ruled out for 6-8 weeks according to Hand of Arsenal
• Christos Tzolis (Thigh): Ruled Out. Recovering from a thigh injury. An MRI scan this week showed positive progress, hopeful for a return in the next couple of weeks.
• William Saliba: Long term injury. Saliba is taking an extended break from football to heal his back without the need for surgery.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟧🟩🟩🟩

🎣 Fleetwood Town Team News:

• Kane Thompson-Sommers: Ruled out
• Will Johnson: Ruled out

⚽ Fleetwood Town Form: 🟥🟥🟩🟧🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• First meeting

📖 Match Facts:

• This is the first time Arsenal have played a match at a venue called Highbury since 2006.
• Fleetwood Town are yet to concede a goal in the EFL Cup this season.

📸 Previously in this fixture…

In the absence of any previous meetings, I have kindly been provided with some training pictures to share, enjoy!

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings
Following a clean and unremarkable (not in a bad way, we just did what we had to do) win against Everton on Saturday, Arsenal head up North to Highbury to take on Fleetwood Town for the first time in history. I won’t blabber on about the Highbury thing, because I’ve already mentioned it twice and I imagine every other article about this match will also talk about it, but yes, Fleetwoods stadium is called Highbury.

Ahead of this match Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor described the game as “one of the biggest nights in the Club’s history” as they prepare to welcome the Champions as well as the eyes of the nation to their town. He urged his players to be excited yet fearless to take on The Arsenal, before admitting that he has no idea how we might lineup, stating that he is preparing for Arsenal as a team rather than whatever individuals might be on the pitch. He was also full of praise for Mikel Arteta: “I can’t have any more respect for someone who has done what Mikel has done”.

For us, this is one where you would expect big rotation. Dowman is a shoo-in for a start, but as I write this I realise that much of our typical B-players are starting games in the absence of big names. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a pairing of Mosquera and Salmon at the back, with Timber getting some minutes at right back. Rice will be rested so I imagine Zubimendi will get a start, which is a crazy thing to say. Zubimendi starts for every team in the league except maybe City, and here we are talking about using him against League 2 opposition in the cup.

Andre Harriman-Annous would not be surprising to see up front, but Gyokeres may want the minutes to get his first goal of the season. I have seen shouts to see Theo Julienne, but for me Timber needs the minutes after 6 months of sporadic football. Less than a season ago this would’ve been the kind of game in which we would be gagging to see Myles start in midfield, but he’s a bonafide starter in that position for us now in a testament to how far he has come since his slow start to last season.

There are 5 days between this match and our huge visit to Anfield on Sunday, so I don’t expect to see zero minutes for any of our usual players, but some players definitely need a rest (and perhaps even not to travel). Rice, Gabriel, Konsa, Raya, and Odegaard are not worth the risk for me, and I would expect that Arteta agrees.