84 places below Arsenal, Fleetwood Town beat them anyway: 1-1, and 5-3 on penalties

There is a version of this tie that ends the way the league table says it should, and for long stretches at Highbury Stadium on Tuesday night Arsenal kept trying to play it. It never arrived. Fleetwood Town, 18th in League Two and two points above the relegation zone in the fourth tier, drew 1-1 with the Premier League champions and beat them 5-3 on penalties, converting all five of their kicks, to reach the Carabao Cup quarter finals for the first time in the club's history. Eighty four places separate the two clubs in the pyramid. On Tuesday, none of them showed.

The night was strange before it was historic. Play stopped after 93 seconds when a drone was spotted above the stadium, referee Michael Salisbury took the players off, and the game sat still for about eight minutes. When it restarted, Fleetwood played like the interruption had settled them rather than the visitors. In the 21st minute Aaron Loupalo-Bi, on loan from Fulham, outmuscled teenage defender Marli Salmon and finished past debutant goalkeeper Illan Meslier. Arsenal, much changed with nine alterations from their manager, pushed without breaking through, and the League Two side reached the break in front.

Gyokeres levelled it five minutes after half time, in the 50th minute, from Ceadach O'Neill's delivery, his first goal of the season, and the tie then became a test of whether pressure alone wins games. Arsenal outshot Fleetwood 26 to 3 across the night and still could not find a second. Then the closing minutes turned against them twice. Max Dowman, 16, was sent off with five minutes left for kicking out after a challenge from Harrison Neal. In stoppage time goalkeeper Jay Lynch made two huge saves, from Ben White and from Martin Odegaard, to carry a tiring fourth tier side to penalties with the champions hanging on as much as the hosts were.

The shootout followed the night's logic exactly. Both sides scored their first three, Andy Cannon put Fleetwood back in front, and Lynch then saved Bruno Guimaraes's penalty low to his left. That left Conor Haughey, a 19 year old centre back, with the kick to win it, and he put it away. Fleetwood's manager Matt Lawlor said afterwards his side had not practised penalties once. Arsenal had not lost to a fourth tier side since Bradford City beat them on penalties in this competition in 2012, and the squad value gap between the clubs, put at 1.15 billion pounds, was the biggest the League Cup has ever seen.

Our call is that this result says more about squad depth as an idea than about one bad night. Arsenal rotated heavily, brought their regulars on after the break, dominated the shot count and still spent the last minutes down to ten men and dependent on a shootout they then lost to a side that had not rehearsed one. Depth is only depth if the changed side can close a tie against opponents with nothing to protect, and a League Two team that leads, levels out the chaos of a drone delay and a red card, and scores five penalties from five has not stolen a result. It has earned one, in every phase the favourites were supposed to own. Fleetwood will get a harder draw from here. Arsenal will get the harder question, and it will follow them into every cup tie they rotate for this season.