Mikel Arteta reflected on the shock of the evening in England as Arsenal exited the Carabao Cup.

Knocked out by League Two opposition

The Gunners hoped to go one step further in the competition for which they reached the final last season, losing 2-0 to Manchester City. But they were knocked out by League Two opposition in the form of Fleetwood Town.

Viktor Gyokeres grabbed his first goal of the campaign in his 11th appearance after Aaron Loupalo-Bi broke the deadlock, but the hosts held on until a penalty shootout, converting all of their spot kicks.

‘We need to take it now on the chin’

“First of all, congratulations to Fleetwood. In the manner they did it, the atmosphere they created.

“I have nothing to fault the players for their attitude and intensity throughout the game, with 11 and with 10, but when you are playing in that superior way, you have to give nothing to the opponent.

“When we create the volume of shots and chances we did, you have to score three, four or five. You capitalise on it. If you don’t, there are no margins, and that’s the reality. Then you have to wait and get through the round on penalties, and we didn’t do that.

“The probability was low with the way the game was panning out, but it’s football and still with low probability, there is always a chance you could be out of the cup.

“This competition and football in this country is like this. The belief and conviction people have is because there is a history related to it. Unfortunately, we didn’t want to go through this - we are extremely sad - but at the same time, we need to congratulate the opponent.

"We need to take it now on the chin. We are out of the competition, we’re very sad for all the people as well here who came to watch the game - I wanted to give them the victory. Now we need to recover, and get ready for Anfield.

“[The supporters] are always with us. That’s unquestionable, after the game they showed their appreciation to the team, and we’ll try to make them very happy against Liverpool."