Matt Maher: Fleetwood shock timely for ailing Carabao Cup
The League Two club’s brilliant win over Arsenal was an important boost for a competition which needs some love.
Fleetwood Town’s stunning upset over Arsenal this week wasn’t just the greatest result in the League Two club’s history.
It was also a pretty big one for the Carabao Cup, a competition which more than any other in English football faces a battle to justify its place in the calendar.
Around 24 hours after Jay Lynch was writing his name into Cod Army folklore with two superb penalty shoot-out saves, many at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium were wondering the point of it all.
The Cherries 3-0 win over Villa was the kind of Carabao affair we are more used to seeing, two second-string XIs doing battle in a fixture which never felt it meant everything to either.
Unai Emery has taken the usual autumn flak for another forgettable Villa exit. It was interesting to hear more than one caller to local radio point out a day at Wembley is still the ultimate dream for many supporters. That can get easily forgotten. Not everyone can afford trips to Istanbul.
Yet Emery is hardly alone in the way he approaches domestic cup competitions. No Premier League manager plays their strongest side in round four.
Perhaps more telling were the eight changes made by Bournemouth boss Marco Rose.
For all they might be regulars these days in the top half of the Premier League, the Cherries have never won a major trophy. This year’s Carabao Cup would appear to offer a chance but you would still be surprised if Rose didn’t ring the changes again for next month’s quarter-final at Liverpool.
But then that’s the modern game, where the competitions and tournaments will always take precedence. If Premier League teams were given the chance to opt out of the Carabao Cup, you suspect many would take it.
Tuesday night in Fleetwood is the strongest argument yet for why this is a competition worth keeping alive.
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Bournemouth’s trophy cabinet might be lacking a major honour, yet the past week-and-a-bit can surely lay claim to being the best in their 127-year history.
Three European Cup winners - AC Milan, Manchester United and Villa - beaten in the space of six days, with an aggregate score of 9-0. Not bad going.
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