After both were involved in engrossing stalemates at the weekend, Preston North End and Arsenal now vie for a spot in the EFL Cup quarter-finals at Deepdale on Wednesday evening, a matchup between the only two clubs in English football to ever complete a top-flight Invincibles season.
The Gunners humiliated Bolton Wanderers 5-1 to progress to round four, while their Championship hosts came out on top against Fulham in one of the most epic penalty shootouts English football has ever seen.
Match preview
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Earning high praise from heralded Liverpool head coach Arne Slot - who claimed that Arsenal were the first team to be better than his for a brief period on Sunday - the Gunners went into the half-time interval with the 2-1 lead that their dominance merited at the Emirates.
However, a Mikel Arteta defence already missing the banned William Saliba came under serious siege when his potent partner Gabriel Magalhaes also picked up an untimely injury, and Liverpool finally broke through the Gunners' rearguard through Mohamed Salah right at the death.
Sunday's four-goal thriller was no doubt two points dropped rather than one gained for Arsenal, who now have a five-point gap to make up to leaders Manchester City in the Premier League table, but the Gunners struck five of the best when Bolton visited in the EFL Cup last month.
Seventeen-year-old gem Ethan Nwaneri was responsible for two of Arsenal's efforts on that evening as the Gunners avoided back-to-back third-round exits in the EFL Cup - a tournament they have not won for some 31 years - but West Ham United ended their journey in round four last term.
Arteta's men also have some road wrongs to right after Bournemouth condemned them to their first domestic loss of 2024 away from home earlier this month, and Arteta can empathise with his opposite number Paul Heckingbottom when it comes to throwing away leads, albeit not quite to the same degree.
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One day before Arsenal and Liverpool headlined this weekend's Premier League action, Preston's trip to Plymouth Argyle was the pick of the Championship fixtures as far as results were concerned, as Heckingbottom's team had seemingly wrapped up an emphatic success.
Wednesday's hosts boasted a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead heading into the final 35 minutes of the match, but Wayne Rooney's never-say-die Argyle managed a breathtaking turnaround to take home a point from Home Park; Morgan Whittaker's injury-time intervention rescued a 3-3 draw.
As the post-mortem into Saturday's collapse continues, the Preston faithful can at least reflect on a time where their side were on the correct end of an astonishing scoreline - they booked their spot in the fourth round of the EFL Cup with a record-breaking 16-15 penalty-shootout success over Fulham.
Never in the history of the EFL Cup had there been a longer shootout before Preston and the Cottagers shared 31 spot kicks between them, and as much as the draw with Plymouth would have felt like a defeat for Heckingbottom's side, it did stretch their unbeaten run to five games in the second tier.
An unremarkable tally of 14 points from 12 games leaves Preston languishing in 16th place in the rankings, though, and each of their last three knockout fixtures versus Arsenal has ended in defeat, most recently a 2016-17 FA Cup tie where Olivier Giroud struck an 89th-minute winner.
Team News
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As one Arsenal defender returns from the sidelines - Saliba has served his one-game ban - two have taken their place on them, as Gabriel appeared to hurt his knee in the draw with Liverpool before Jurrien Timber was forced off with suspected cramp.
However, neither man should have been risked from the off on Wednesday even if they were fully fit - the same goes for fellow absentees Riccardo Calafiori (knee) and Martin Odegaard (ankle) - while Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee) and Kieran Tierney (hamstring) are also sidelined.
Second-choice goalkeeper Neto being cup-tied allowed 16-year-old Jack Porter to become Arsenal's youngest-ever starter in goal against Bolton, but another shot-stopping debutant - 2006-born Tommy Setford - could start this one instead.
Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Josh Nichols represent another handful of teenagers whom Arteta should place his faith in on Wednesday night, along with veterans Raheem Sterling and Jorginho.
Meanwhile, Preston's injury room currently houses Ched Evans (discomfort), Patrick Bauer (elbow) and Will Keane (tendon), while Robbie Brady twisted his ankle in the draw with Plymouth and is not expected to make the cut either.
Montenegrin striker Milutin Osmajic is also unavailable on account of an eight-game ban for biting Liverpool's on-loan Blackburn Rovers defender Owen Beck a few weeks back, but Josh Bowler might return from illness to offer Heckingbottom an alternative to the stricken Brady.
Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Woodman; Kesler-Hayden, Hughes, Lindsay, Storey, Potts; Whiteman, Frokjaer-Jensen, Ledson; Greenwood, Riis
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Setford; Nichols, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Nwaneri, Jorginho, Rice; Sterling, Jesus, Martinelli
We say: Preston North End 0-2 Arsenal
In the wake of Saturday's calamitous collapse, it would be no surprise to see Preston adopt an all-out defensive approach in the hope of stifling Arteta's side, which will no doubt have a second-string feel to it.
However, the young guns should breach the hosts' rearguard eventually, and we can only envisage Arsenal making it through to the last eight without breaking too much of a sweat.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ben Knapton
