Arsenal team news vs Brighton and predicted lineup | OneFootball

Premier League leaders Arsenal will turn their focus to the EFL Cup on Wednesday evening as Brighton visit the Emirates Stadium for a last-16 tie that will be live on Sky Sports+ (KO 19:45).

Everything is rosy for the Gunners, with a four-point lead at the top of the league and a 10-game unbeaten sequence across all competitions.

They’ll be wary of a visiting Brighton side who dumped them out of this competition in the 2022/23 season and avoided defeat in both league meetings last season.

Arsenal Predicted XI vs Brighton

Arsenal (4-3-3): Kepa; White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly; Eze, Norgaard, Merino; Nwaneri, Gyokeres, Trossard.

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta is certain to make changes for this EFL Cup tie and after suffering knocks in Sunday’s win over Crystal Palace it is likely that William Saliba, Declan Rice, Riccardo Calafiori will be rested completely.

Arsenal team news vs Brighton

That trio of Saliba, Rice and Calafiori are all likely to get the night off having suffered in the hard-fought home win over Palace.

Former Palace man Eberechi Eze was the match-winner and started for the third game running, the 27-year-old may continue with skipper Martin Odegaard still absent.

The Norwegian playmaker is joined on the sidelines by Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke.

A full debut for Piero Hincapie at centre-back seems likely and, with Saliba likely to miss out, he may be partnering Cristhian Mosquera, who started the win over Port Vale in the last round.

Teenager Max Dowman got close to a half-hour in that win at Vale Park and will hope for an Emirates cameo at some stage, with Ethan Nwaneri (19) a more probable starter on the right of the Gunners midfield.

Kepa Arrizabalaga should be the Carabao Cup netminder once more, with Mikel Merino another likely to return to the starting XI.

Arteta’s Arsenal flying high

Things are good in the world of Arsenal boss Arteta right now. His side are unbeaten in 10 since losing to Liverpool at Anfield in August.

Dominic Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick won that game for the champions but the Reds have floundered since and the Gunners have kicked on to open a gap at the top, only enhanced by Manchester City’s loss at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Arsenal have not conceded a goal in more than 500 minutes, with five clean sheets since their 2-1 win at Newcastle last month.

They are title favourites and, while the EFL Cup isn’t the top priority, Arteta won’t lose sight of the fact that silverware of any sort is a huge priority and this trophy is the first one that will be handed out.

Arsenal last hoisted it in 1993 and haven’t graced the final since a 3-0 loss to Man City in 2018.

Winning the EFL Cup won’t satisfy the appetite of the expectant Gunners faithful – or indeed Arteta’s critics – but could prove a worthy appetiser before the main course.

With wind very much in their sails and a good draw at home, Arteta and his Arsenal squad won’t fancy coughing up momentum by surrendering to a Seagulls outfit who haven’t got past this stage in the competition since the late 1970s.