Arsenal host Brighton & Hove Albion in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates this evening. The match creates a bit of a quandary for Mikel Arteta (or maybe it doesn’t — he’s single-minded
and focused, after all). But from where I sit, the “how much to go for it” question looms large. On the one hand, October has been an excellent month for Arsenal. They sit atop the Premier League and Champions League tables and are playing well. You’d like to keep that momentum and good feeling going.
On the other hand, the injuries and minor knocks are starting to pile up. There’s two more PL matches and a CL tilt before the next international break and a chance to rest up, recuperate, and get guys back. How much does the Carabao Cup matter in the grand scheme of things?
Silverware is silverware, after all. And it’s the one thing that this bunch of players lack. The 2020 FA Cup doesn’t count — the roster has almost entirely turned over since then. The Gunners went for it in the League Cup last year, making the semifinals before getting bounced by Newcastle. How much of that run was the draw and how much of it was Arteta and the lads wanting to make a go of it?
You’d expect Brighton to deploy close to their first choice lineup. For the smaller clubs, the cups represent their only real shot at silverware. Despite their shaky start to the season — 3-3-3 record, 13th place, scoring plenty but conceding too many — they have the quality to lift the trophy. From here, all it would take is five good games. They’re home to Leeds in the Premier League this weekend, which is a relatively comfortable fixture. All signs point to them pushing the chips in to chance the upset. They’ve already beaten Newcastle, Chelsea, and Manchester City this season.
As mentioned earlier, Arsenal’s knocks and niggles list is alarmingly long. Both William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli miss out with problems suffered against Crystal Palace. Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori both had to come off too, but Mikel Arteta said they’d be available for selection. Gabriel Magalhaes was a question mark before Palace but played. Bukayo Saka has been battling an illness. In a perfect world, you’d like to give all four of those guys the time off. Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke, Martin Ødegaard, and Gabriel Jesus are all still out of action but progressing towards a return.
You’d also like to give guys like Viktor Gyokeres and Jurrien Timber a rest. They’ve both played a lot of tough minutes. Gyokeres is repeatedly banging bodies with centerbacks and making runs for his teammates. Timber is constantly up and down the right flank. I’m sure the Arsenal training staff monitor them (and all the players) closely to know when fatigue is creeping in to increase injury risk, but I think everyone would rather avoid another Kai Havertz last winter situation — he ran himself ragged and into an injury that ended his season. Avoiding those things starts with getting guys time off whenever you can.
Brighton will be without James Milner, Karou Mitoma, Brajan Gruda, Jack Hinshelwood, and Joel Veltman.
Lineups will be posted when available.
WHO: Arsenal vs Brighton & Hove Albion
WHAT: The EFL Carabao Cup 4th Round
WHEN: Wednesday, October 29th 12:45 pm PT | 3:45 pm ET | 7:45 pm GMT
WHERE: The Emirates Stadium, London
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on the Paramount+ (US) and Amazon Prime Video (UK) apps
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