Result: Fleetwood won 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Read the match report.
Fleetwood Town host Arsenal tonight in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, a last-16 tie the League Two club has never reached before. Kick-off at Highbury Stadium is 8pm. Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football are showing it in Britain, with coverage from 7.30pm. BBC Radio 5 Live has commentary, and updates from Bradford City against Peterborough United.
It is the first competitive meeting between the sides. Fleetwood's ground holds about 5,300. Matt Lawlor's team have got here without conceding: Ched Evans scored the only goal against Chesterfield, then a brace in a 4-0 win over Shrewsbury, and Town beat Championship Sheffield United 1-0 in the third round. All three ties were at home. On Saturday they lost 2-1 at Exeter in the league, Ronan Coughlan equalising before Exeter went back in front three minutes later. The cup is the fixture they have been pointing at.
Arsenal came into the competition in the third round and won 4-2 at Ipswich. Sixteen-year-old Max Dowman scored twice. Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino were also on the scoresheet. Mikel Arteta has the depth to rotate and still field a side that League Two has not prepared for. He also has a league to protect. Saturday's 2-0 win over Everton moved the defending champions level with Manchester City on 21 points, behind only on goal difference. Ezri Konsa and Gabriel scored that day.
What a small ground changes
Cup nights at this scale are about the pitch and the noise, not the table. Fleetwood have kept three clean sheets against lower-league and Championship opponents who had to come to the seaside. Arsenal are a different problem: a team that has just drawn at Bayern Munich in the Champions League and won at Nottingham Forest before the Everton game. Arteta does not need to pick his league side. He does need enough of it that a packed Highbury cannot turn the first half into a scrap the visitors never settle.
Dowman's two goals at Portman Road are the selection story. A 16-year-old who has already scored twice in this cup will be in the conversation again, because this is the competition where Arteta has been willing to find out. Madueke and Merino give him senior goals from the same night if he wants the tie closed early. Fleetwood's answer is the thing they have actually done: not concede, and make the opponent play on their ground.
Tonight's Tie
- Fleetwood Town v Arsenal, Carabao Cup fourth round, last 16.
- Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood, kick-off 8pm. Live on Sky Sports.
- Fleetwood's cup run: Chesterfield, Shrewsbury 4-0, Sheffield United 1-0. No goals against.
- Arsenal's third-round win: 4-2 at Ipswich. Dowman scored twice.
- Wednesday: Liverpool v Chelsea, 8pm. Thursday: Everton v Newcastle, 7.45pm.
The rest of the round for the big clubs
Liverpool play Chelsea at 8pm on Wednesday. Everton host Newcastle at 7.45pm on Thursday. The Premier League itself does not return until Saturday, when Chelsea meet Manchester United at 12.30pm and City are at home to Brighton. Tonight is the first of the midweek cup ties that will decide who is still in a competition Arsenal have treated, in recent years, as more than a night off.
This morning's other football story is not a fixture. Harry Kane won the Ballon d'Or at the Palladium, the first Englishman since 2001. Declan Rice was 15th in that vote. He may or may not start in Lancashire tonight. The cup, unlike the prize, still has to be played.