The evening began with an unusual interruption when a drone hovering over the pitch forced referee Michael Salisbury to halt play barely 60 seconds after kick-off, resulting in an eight-minute delay.
Mikel Arteta rotated heavily, making nine changes from the weekend’s 2-0 win over Everton, with only Myles Lewis-Skelly and Viktor Gyokeres retaining their places.
Nevertheless, the visitors still fielded considerable quality in Martin Zubimendi, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and Cristhian Mosquera.
Fleetwood refused to be intimidated, hurling bodies in front of every shot and defending superbly in large numbers to frustrate the Gunners.
