Arsenal fans have expressed their anger at the manner of their shock Carabao Cup exit, with fans venting their frustration at everything from how Max Dowman was sent off to the pitch dimensions at Fleetwood Town.
The Gunners were beaten 5-3 on penalties in the fourth round on Tuesday night after a 1-1 draw in regular time.
Arsenal played the final few minutes of that encounter too with 10 men after Max Dowman was sent off for reacting aggressively following a heavy tackle by Harrison Neal.
The ferociousness of Neal’s challenge has irked many Arsenal supporters – with many citing that 16-year-old Dowman could have had his leg broken.
Piers Morgan is among those in that belief and took to X to express his support for Dowman at full-time, while conceding his side were poor in general.
‘No way is that a straight red,’ his post began. ‘Dowman was mown down in a thuggish way, and reacted like anyone would when someone nearly broke their leg.
Max Dowman (far right) was sent off for his reaction to heavy challenge on him on Tuesday
The Arsenal star reacted furiously after being on the receiving end of this Harrison Neal tackle
Arsenal fans defended the 16-year-old for his reaction to Fleetwood midfielder Neal afterwards
‘Blaming a 16-year-old kid for Arsenal’s abject humiliation is also ridiculous. None of our players turned up.’
AFTV regular Tai echoed Morgan’s sentiments, branding Fleetwood’s tackles in general as ‘disgusting’ and that Dowman is right to react with the likes of former players such as Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo being on the receiving end of leg-breaking tackles in the past.
‘You can criticise Max, but Max is 16. He’s seen that. Is he going to wait for his leg to be broken? The challenges that they were doing were absolutely disgraceful. This is disgusting,’ Tai told the AFTV YouTube channel.
‘The ref was not doing his job so now what we have is a situation where players again endanger other players’ career. Aaron [Ramsey] nearly had his leg amputated. Eduardo nearly had his leg amputated.
‘I expect players to not endanger other players’ careers. Max is 16. He does not want to get his leg broken like happened to Aaron and Eduardo. Now, you can say Max is wrong but Max is trying to defend himself.
‘The referee did not do his job, and it is scandalous. It’s disgraceful. And I’m disgusted that we’ve come here to face this. Fleetwood Town should be ashamed of themselves because that’s a tackle that endangers our players careers.’
While Tai was unhappy with the refereeing display, his fellow AFTV member Julian chose to blame the pitch dimensions for the visitors’ defeat at Highbury Stadium, home of League Two Fleetwood.
Arsenal fan Piers Morgan took to X to defend 16-year-old Dowman’s actions
AFTV regular Tai accused Fleetwood Town of several ‘disgusting’ challenges during the match
Meanwhile, AFTV’s Julian claimed the pitch dimensions were a reason why the Gunners lost
‘It’s 102metres long, the Premier League is 105m long: it’s just under three per cent difference,’ Julian quipped.
‘When you have a margin of that kind of level, it is only small but it can make a difference. And what that allowed Fleetwood to do was to make it easier for them to condense the play on a smaller pitch – which they’re used to playing on.
‘We’re not talking about the main reason why they lost, we’re talking about the small margins and the smaller margins tonight was three metres less in length in the pitch. It’s one of the smaller reasons.’
