Overview

Arsenal is having a perfect start to the 2026-2027 season and is facing the opportunity to extend their winning streak when facing Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup. The Champions League is often mentioned as a title missing in Arsenal's collection, but the Carabao Cup is also a tournament that has brought many disappointments to the North London team. The last time Arsenal won this tournament was more than 30 years ago, when Paul Merson and Steve Morrow helped them defeat Sheffield Wednesday in 1993.

Since then, Arsenal has reached the final four times but has always finished as runners-up, most recently losing to Manchester City in the final last season. However, Arsenal's journey in the Carabao Cup in recent years has not been too bad. In their last 11 participations, they only stopped once right from the third round, which was a surprising defeat to Brighton in the 2022-2023 season.

Arsenal enters the match against Ipswich with perfect form. They have won all six matches since the beginning of the season, including a 2-0 victory over Sunderland. Bruno Guimaraes and Bukayo Saka scored in the second half to secure three points for Mikel Arteta's team.

Despite the success, Arteta still had reason to be dissatisfied. Arsenal faced a controversial decision when Sunderland was awarded a penalty, a situation that the Spanish strategist described as 'unacceptable'. Fortunately for Arsenal, David Raya played excellently and saved Enzo Le Fee's shot, helping the team achieve their fifth clean sheet in six matches this season.

If they beat Ipswich, Arsenal will win their first seven matches of the season, including the English Super Cup, for the first time since the 2004-2005 season. While Arsenal is familiar with finishing second in the Carabao Cup, Ipswich has never even participated in a final. Their best record is four semi-final appearances, with the most recent being in the 2010-2011 season.

Notably, Arsenal was the team that stopped Ipswich in that campaign. Ipswich surprised many by winning 1-0 in the first leg at home, but Arsenal reversed the situation with a 3-0 victory in the second leg.

Currently, Ipswich is also on a better Carabao Cup journey than in recent seasons. However, their performance in the Premier League has been erratic, with heavy defeats against Manchester United and Liverpool. Nonetheless, Ipswich created an impressive comeback against Crystal Palace, taking advantage of the opponent being reduced to ten men after Axel Disasi's direct red card in the first half. Zian Flemming scored in the 90th minute to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory.

However, the recent history of confrontations with Arsenal does not bring much hope for Ipswich. In the 2024-2025 Premier League season, they lost to Arsenal 0-1 at home before suffering a 0-4 defeat when visiting Arsenal's ground.

Expected lineup:

• Ipswich Town: Walton, O'Shea, Diop, Greaves, Davis, Palacios, Nunez, Philogene, Enciso, Maeda, Flemming.
• Arsenal: Kepa, Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Guimaraes, Madueke, Merino, Eze, Gyokeres.

The match between Ipswich Town and Arsenal takes place at 2:00 AM on September 16 (Vietnam time).