Arsenal lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace on Monday evening, but they’ll be hoping to bounce back on Saturday against Palace’s big rivals Brighton.
Brighton have been a thorn in the Gunners’ side for a few years now. They almost single-handedly cost them a place in the Champions League in 2019, while they famously beat the Gunners in 2020 in a game that saw Matteo Guendouzi lose his head and Bernd Leno pick up an injury.
However, this Brighton side may not pose that big of a problem for Arsenal. After all, they’re in pretty torrid form.
They’ve not won any of their previous seven matches, and their draw against Norwich last weekend was their first point since mid-February.
Mikel Arteta’s side come into this one as strong favourites, and with that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Arsenal’s starting Xi for this one.
We think that Mikel Arteta will make just one change from the side that lost to Palace.
Yes, it was a poor performance against the Eagles, but there isn’t much room for rotation in this Arsenal team at the moment due to their lack of quality depth.
The only change in this side is an injury-enforced switch as Thomas Partey drops out for Albert Sambi Lokonga.
Nuno Tavares has come under fire this week for his poor showing on Monday, and while Alan Smith stated that the Portuguese full-back may never be picked at left-back again, we actually expect him to start here.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard start just behind Alexandre Lacazette for this crunch clash.
A result here would put Arsenal back in fourth, at least momentarily, as Spurs face Aston Villa in the late kick-off.
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