Arsenal vs Fleetwood Town drone delay, Zubimendi mask

A drone hovering above Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal stopped play for more than eight minutes before the game had properly settled. Martin Zubimendi also returned in a protective face mask after the broken nose he suffered against Everton.

Arteta's view of the tie

Mikel Arteta called it "proper English football" and said Arsenal would take the game seriously. Speaking to standard.co.uk, he said: "It’s always very special. This competition, coming to this kind of ground, it’s proper English football. We should be very excited about it, we have a tough challenge ahead and we know that. We’re going to take the game very seriously."

He also pointed to the chance for fringe players to get minutes: "It’s great to have Marli, Max and Ceadach with us. We’ve always said everybody is going to be important, they need to feel like that and the only way to do that is to play minutes. Give me a headache, give me a problem and so far, the boys have done really well."

The stoppage and Zubimendi's return

Referee Michael Salisbury stopped play when Arsenal were waiting to take a free-kick with one minute and 40 seconds on the clock. Reports differed on the exact length of the delay, with BBC Sport saying it lasted more than eight minutes and other reporting putting it at nearly 10 minutes.

Zubimendi's return was the other strange detail in a strange night. He wore the mask after the injury at Everton, and this was his first Arsenal start since the win over Ipswich last month. His League Cup numbers are still small, with only one appearance and 85 minutes in the competition, but that made the visual all the more notable.