Arsenal embarrassed in penalty-shootout loss to 4th-tier Fleetwood in English League Cup stunner

Arsenal slumped to one of the biggest upsets in the English League Cup’s 66-year history, with the Premier League champion knocked out by fourth-tier Fleetwood Town in a penalty shootout in the last 16 on Tuesday.

Five months after losing on spot kicks to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final, Arsenal endured more shootout misery — this time at the 5,300-capacity Highbury Stadium, the intimate home ground of Fleetwood that bears the same name as Arsenal’s storied former stadium.

Fleetwood — a team 84 positions further down the English soccer pyramid than Arsenal — converted all of its penalties and won the shootout 5-3. Arsenal's Bruno Guimaraes saw his shot saved in the only failed attempt in the shootout.

The match finished 1-1 in regulation — with Arsenal ending it with 10 men after a red card for 16-year-old prodigy Max Dowman.

“A really sad day for us,” said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who left out some first-team stars — like Declan Rice, Gabriel and David Raya — but still picked a strong lineup containing seasoned internationals.

Jubilant home fans streamed onto the field after Conor Haughey dispatched the clinching penalty for Fleetwood, which had never reached this stage of the competition before and — in 18th place in League Two — was the lowest-ranked club left in the draw.

“The biggest night in the club’s history in terms of opposition coming to town and we’ve managed to beat the (Premier League) champions," Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor said.

Fleetwood goalkeeper Jay Lynch, the star of the shootout after parrying aside Guimaraes' attempt, said the team was inspired by another League Cup upset delivered by a fourth-tier side last season.

“We took heart from Grimsby beating Man United last year," Lynch said. "We kind of compared it.

“Amazing for the club, the town. Honestly it means everything to everyone.”

Trailing to a 21st-minute strike by on-loan Fulham striker Aaron Loupalo-Bi, Arsenal threw on captain Martin Odegaard at halftime to get back into the match.

Viktor Gyokeres equalized in the 50th minute but Arsenal struggled to create many clear-cut chances after that and had Dowman sent off in the 85th for kicking out at an opponent who had floored him with a crunching tackle. Dowman appeared to get a rebuke from Arteta as he left the field.

“We have a massive responsibility to carry this badge in the best possible way,” Arteta said. “It had nothing to do with effort or application or determination to win it, but we lacked other things.”

Fleetwood, which is a coastal town in northwest England, is most famous for being the team where former England and Leicester striker Jamie Vardy made his name.

Vardy was there for just one season and helped Fleetwood gain promotion out of the fifth tier, and into the English Football League, before getting a move to Leicester in 2012.

In 2023, Fleetwood's former owner, Andy Pilley, was handed a 13-year jail sentence for fraud. He lost an appeal in February this year.

A drone hovering above the stadium caused an eight-minute delay soon after the match had kicked off.

Arsenal was about to take a free kick inside the second minute when the referee spotted the drone and temporarily stopped play, leading to jeers from some fans.

The referee spoke to the stadium safety officer, both managers and then some of the players before finally restarting the game.

Guimaraes should maybe stop taking penalties.

The midfielder had a spot kick saved in Brazil's loss to Norway in the Round of 16 at the World Cup in the summer.

Bradford City will represent England’s third tier in the quarterfinals — 13 years after reaching the final of the competition when playing in the fourth tier.

Bradford beat Peterborough 2-0 and will join Fleetwood as the lower-league teams in Wednesday's draw for the last eight.

In 2013, Bradford became the first fourth-tier team in more than 50 years to get to the final and lost 5-0 to Swansea at Wembley Stadium. It eliminated Arsenal on the path to the title match that season.

The last 16 continues on Wednesday with five more games, headlined by defending champion Manchester City at home to Brighton and Liverpool hosting Chelsea.

There are three more all-Premier League matchups: Bournemouth vs. Aston Villa, Fulham vs. Crystal Palace and Sunderland vs. Brentford.

On Thursday, Everton hosts Newcastle.

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Arsenal's Bruno Guimaraes kicks on a penalty shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Fleetwood's coach Matt Lawlor celebrates with his players after winning a penalty shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Fleetwood's goalkeeper Jay Lynch celebrates during penalty shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Arsenal's Kai Havertz scores on a penalty shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Arsenal's Kai Havertz, left, challenges for the ball with Fleetwood's Finley Potter during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

Fleetwood’s Conor Haughey scores the winning penalty kick in shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

Fleetwood's players celebrate after winning a penalty shootout during the English League Cup soccer match between Fleetwood Town and Arsenal in Fleetwood, England, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday failed to secure a grand jury indictment against a former White House staffer who provided dramatic but disputed testimony against President Donald Trump before a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A grand jury in Washington rejected prosecutors’ request to return an indictment against Cassidy Hutchinson, said the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case. It’s the latest setback in the Justice Department's efforts to persuade grand jurors in the nation's capital to bring politically sensitive cases.

Details of prosecutors’ allegations against Hutchinson were not immediately clear, but Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath in her explosive testimony in 2022 about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol to halt the congressional certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The effort to indict Hutchinson was hardly isolated. It is part of a surge in politically sensitive actions by the Justice Department in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections targeting perceived adversaries of the president, including a new attempt to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and a search by federal agents of the home of outspoken Trump critic and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

It's highly unusual for grand juries to decline to return indictments, but the Justice Department under Trump has been rebuked by citizens in the nation's capital in a number of high-profile cases. A grand jury in Washington earlier this year declined to indict Democratic lawmakers in connection with a video they recorded urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and reject orders they believe to be unlawful.

Hutchinson declined to comment through her lawyer on Tuesday.

Hutchinson's testimony, at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was seen at the time as particularly compelling given her proximity to power as special assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff.

She described an angry, defiant president who was trying to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol. And when the events at the Capitol spiraled toward violence, with the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” she testified that Trump declined to intervene.

Trump at the time denied on his social media platform, Truth Social, much of what Hutchinson. He called her a “total phony” and “bad news.”

Hutchinson’s description of the altercation inside the presidential SUV was regarded as particularly explosive, even as she acknowledged during her testimony that she was relaying what she had heard from a White House security official and did not have firsthand knowledge of the episode because she was not there.

Her account was quickly disputed.

In March 2024, House Republicans released a previously undisclosed transcript of the Select Committee’s interview with a Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV. That transcript of the presidential limo driver contradicted some of Hutchinson’s testimony but corroborated other aspects of her account, including Trump’s attempt to join the mob scene at the Capitol.

The driver described the president as insistent on going to the Capitol but said he did not see the altercation that Hutchinson described. The driver said Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel" and also said: “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all."

Hutchinson has alleged that members of Trump’s inner circle dangled job opportunities and financial assistance while she was cooperating with the committee. She also testified in a closed-door interview released by the committee that a former lawyer of hers — a former ethics counsel in the Trump White House — told her “the less you remember, the better.”

“It feels ridiculous, because in my heart I knew where my loyalties lied, and my loyalties lied with the truth,” she told the committee. “And I never wanted to diverge from that.” The former attorney has disputed that account.

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations that he incited the mob that attacked the Capitol, but he was later acquitted by the Senate. The Justice Department under Biden charged Trump with felony offenses, accusing him of illegally working to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack, but then-special counsel Jack Smith abandoned the case after Trump’s 2024 presidential victory. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.

Hutchinson, a native of Pennington, New Jersey, previously worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and interned for Republicans, including Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.

FILE - Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, at the Capitol in Washington, June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, at the Capitol in Washington, June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, is sworn in before she testifies before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, at the Capitol in Washington, June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)