Football essentials, 28 October: United clear the air, Lens lose Édouard, Arsenal fall at Fleetwood

Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes sat down together at Carrington, Lens lost their striker days before the northern derby, and Arsenal discovered that the Carabao Cup gives nothing away. The day in football, in seven stories.

United clear the air before Chelsea

Michael Carrick and his captain met on Tuesday morning at Carrington, before training. Bruno Fernandes, 32, assured the head coach of his full commitment to turning the season around, and the rest of the squad made the same promise in a meeting, The Guardian reports. The purpose: reset relations before Friday’s trip to Chelsea.

The northern derby loses Édouard and the away end

Odsonne Édouard has had surgery and will be out for several weeks, L’Équipe reports: Lens travel to Lille on Friday without their striker. The club had already closed its away section for the derby, a sanction after the trouble in Bruges, a decision our article sets out. The derby preview is online with the full reading of the match and Friday’s odds.

Mathieu: “This job allowed me to take my colours back”

Four years after retiring, Jérémy Mathieu has described the depression that followed his retirement and the job at Intersport that helped him out of it. “This job allowed me to take my colours back,” he says. Our portrait tells the story.

Gonçalo Ramos owns his PSG exit

“I had reached a stage where I wanted only one thing: to leave.” Now at AC Milan, Gonçalo Ramos pulled no punches about the end of his Paris adventure: “Sometimes it was frustrating and it annoyed me.” Our piece carries his full explanation.

French Cup: a Parisian derby in the seventh round

With Ligue 2 clubs entering, the seventh-round draw produced a Parisian derby between Paris 13 Atletico and Red Star. Nantes were paired with Stade Castelbourgeois, and Montpellier will travel to Corsica. The full draw of the seventh and eighth rounds is at L’Équipe.

Arsenal fall at Fleetwood, Dowman appeal up against it

Knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night by Fleetwood Town, a fourth-tier club, Arsenal plan to appeal Max Dowman’s red card. Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher expects the appeal to fail: the young player “was aggressive”, he judges on Sky Sports. A drone even halted play, ESPN reports, and The Guardian followed the evening live.

Ligue 1: a calendar under strain

The wave of postponed matches has left the LFP uneasy: the league had “a huge scare”, Foot Mercato reports, after a weekend in which Lyon-Angers was pushed back a day. In Ligue 2, Montpellier-Metz has been moved forward to Friday at the request of the Hérault prefecture, according to L’Équipe.