Arsenal head to Anfield on Sunday with a six-point lead over Liverpool, and the dust is only just settling on Tuesday’s embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at Fleetwood.

Losing on penalties to a League Two side was a sore one to take, and Mikel Arteta called it a sad day afterwards. But former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher thinks it could actually end up doing Arsenal a big favour.

Jamie Carragher says Fleetwood exit ‘almost puts one hand on the trophy’

Speaking on Overlap Daily, Carragher admitted Arsenal would have been hurting after the game. “You know what? That’s one of those games where you’re angry. You’re almost a little bit embarrassed. You know the story for a few days,” he said.

“But when it calms down, and especially when he’s looking at the Carabao Cup semi-finals in January, February… this almost puts one hand on the trophy, I think, the Premier League trophy.”

Without a deep run in the League Cup, Arsenal now have three free midweeks to rest players and prepare for league games and the Champions League, and there’s no final to take a league fixture away from them either.

Carragher did accept that no team wants to go out. “You want to get there. You want to win trophies. I get it,” he said, before pointing out that Arsenal’s record in the competition is “unbelievably bad”. “But they’re really good in the FA Cup.”

He’s not wrong about the League Cup. Arsenal haven’t won it since 1993, while they’ve won the FA Cup a record 14 times. Of course, they came close to breaking that duck last season, but ultimately fell short in the final losing 2-0 to Manchester City.

Is Jamie Carragher right about Arsenal?

Well, he’s certainly got a point on the fixture schedule. With Bukayo Saka out until December and injuries being picked up elsewhere in the squad, a few free midweeks over the busy winter period could make a real difference, as we pointed out after the defeat.

But nobody at Arsenal will be treating Tuesday as a blessing. Arteta wants to win every competition available to him, and he certainly doesn’t want his team on the wrong end of an upset like that. The best way to make it look like a good thing is to make the most of the extra rest.

But before then, they need to use the embarrassment and frustration of the defeat to fuel them on Sunday at Anfield. A win there would put Arsenal nine points clear of Liverpool. Lose, and the gap is down to three, and Andoni Iraola’s side are well and truly title challengers.