Arsenal vs Brighton & Hove Albion preview: The Seagulls aim to ruffle red-hot Gunners

Arsenal welcomes Brighton & Hove Albion to the Emirates on Wednesday night in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

The Gunners triumphed 1-0 over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday thanks to Eberechi Eze’s strike against his former employers.

Mikel Arteta’s men also defeated Port Vale 2-0, with Eze also being on the scoresheet in their last round of the competition.

Brighton are fresh off a 4-2 defeat to a rejuvenated Manchester United side, which ended their five-game winning streak across all competitions.

The Seagulls saw off both Oxford United and Barnsley with a 6-0 scoreline en route to this stage, becoming the first side in the League Cup history to win back-to-back games by at least six goals.

Match preview

Last season’s league meetings between these sides both ended in a 1-1 draw, with Declan Rice controversially sent off at the Emirates and Ethan Nwaneri scoring in the reverse fixture.

Their last Carabao Cup encounter came in November 2022, when Brighton stunned Arsenal 3-1 in North London.

Brighton are winless in each of their last four meetings with Arsenal in all competitions (D2 L2), since a 3-0 Premier League away win under Roberto De Zerbi in May 2023.

The Gunners have been knocked out of the League Cup by Premier League clubs in all nine seasons since 2016/17. They were comfortably beaten 4-0 across two legs in last season’s semi-final against eventual winners Newcastle United.

In the Seagulls’ 6-0 win over Barnsley last time out, four of their strikes on the evening came via Diego Gomez, the first player to score that many in an EFL Cup away game since Julio Baptista for Arsenal against Liverpool in 2007.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side have failed to make the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup since the 1978/79 edition and have been eliminated at the last-16 stage four times in the last five seasons.

Team news

Arsenal

The host will be without captain Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke, and Gabriel Jesus.

Declan Rice, William Saliba and Riccardo Calafiori will be assessed ahead of the game, after they were all forced off in their win over the weekend.

Gabriel Martinelli is also unavailable for the host after he suffered a knock against Palace.

Brighton & Hove Albion

They remain without key players, including Kaoru Mitoma, Joel Veltman and Brajan Gruda, while James Milner is unavailable due to a muscle issue.

Adam Webster, Solly March and Jack Hinshelwood continue their long-term recoveries for the visitors.

Predicted line-ups

Arsenal: Kepa, White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly, Eze, Norgaard, Merino, Nwaneri, Gyokeres, Trossard.

Brighton & Hove Albion: Steele, Wieffer, Dunk, Boscagli, De Cuyper, Baleba, Ayari, Gomez, Rutter, Minteh, Welbeck.