Mikel Arteta confirms two key Arsenal injuries ahead of Carabao Cup tie against Brighton | OneFootball

Arsenal will be without William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli for Wednesday night’s visit of Brighton in the Carabao Cup as injury problems mount for the Premier League leaders.

A hard-fought victory over Crystal Palace on the weekend left the Gunners four points clear at the top of the table, but several knocks to key players cast a cloud over the result.

And while Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori are fit and could be involved, Saliba and Martinelli will not feature.

“Saliba is out, he won’t be involved in this match,” Arteta confirmed. “Rice will be available. Calafiori, yes [available]. Martinelli, it looks as well as though he is going to be out. This game will come too early for him.”

Bukayo Saka was ill last week and put in a subdued performance against Palace before being substituted in the second half, but Arteta said the winger is “going to be fine”.

Arteta is likely to rotate his starting XI for the fourth-round tie, with Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie, Ben White, Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman all likely to start. But the manager is still without several senior players including Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz.