**Arsenal**advanced to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a -0 win against Brighton.
Both sides showed significant rotation in their initial plans for the match, but the Seagulls started with more positivity. Great chances came their way through the progressive work of two top talents, and after the first half hour of action, the hosts were fortunate to still be holding onto their clean sheet.
In the end, a short spell of quality from the hosts was enough to break the deadlock as **Ethan Nwaneri**applied the final touch. The Gunners gave their first teamers the chance to kill off the contest, and they obliged: Bukayo Saka settled the score, and **Arsenal**moved onto the next round.
Story of the Match
Many expected rotation from Arsenal, and Mikel Arteta obliged, only keeping matchwinner Eberechi Eze in the starting eleven from a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on the weekend.
**Max Dowman**became the youngest player to start a game in the history of the club, and fellow Hale End teenager Andre Harriman-Annous made his first start for the Gunners. Christian Norgaard and Piero Hincapie made their first competitive starts for the side while **Ben White**was back in the fold for the first time since the 1-0 victory against Manchester United two and a half months ago.
**Brighton**hoped to bounce back from a 4-2 defeat at **Old Trafford**on the weekend. Fabian Hurzeler handed starts to six new players. Diego Coppola and Oliver Boscagli beefed up the rearguard with **Jan Paul van Hecke**in a back five. **Diego Gomez**got a midfield spot next to Carlos Baleba. Young Greek duo **Stefanos Tzimas**and Charalampos Kostoulas joined Georginio Rutter in the attack.
For the first time since 2003, **Arsenal**had avoided conceding a single shot on target in back to back Premier League matches before giving just one away against Palace. However, a heavily rotated lineup struggled to hit the same standards of stability, allowing the guests to get early confidence.
Hincapie needlessly gave the ball away to Baleba in the opening minutes of the match and Baleba thrashed out a long range shot to keep Kepa Arrizabalaga on his toes as the deputy shot stopper.
The Spaniard needed to be alert. Tzimas released Rutter on a counter, and the goalkeeper got his body in the way of an effort from the Frenchman. Barely a minute later, even bigger break in the final third fell for Brighton. A cleared corner left Rutter with the room to carry the ball into the open field: he played provider for Tzimas with a well timed through ball, but the striker failed to hit the target.
Another longer range strike from the forward forced **Kepa**to smoothly smother the danger and a clever flick found Ferdi Kadioglu, who wildly slashed at the ball from the edge of the danger zone. By the 23rd minute, the Seagulls had registered triple the shots that Arteta’s men had generated.
Rutter continued to mess with Myles Lewis-Skelly with his trickery, and a layoff led to a dangerous delivery from the right flank as Tzimas flicked the ball onto Koustoulas, who could not connect.
Baleba was also barrelling his way through the centre of the park, but the immense powers of recovery from the Gunners gave them relief on the scoreline— if not in terms of momentum.
A Hincapie cutback left Merino with the chance to try to test Jason Steele, but his ambitious flick fell kindly for the goalkeeper. The Emirates Stadium was subdued at half time as the guests had enjoyed the better of the openings, and given their team more problems than any other opponent this month.
Despite the disappointment in the display, Arteta did not turn to the bench before the start of the second half. Hurzeler was the first to twist, sending on Yasin Ayari in place of Koustoulas.
The guests picked up from where they left off as **Diego Gomez**and **Maxim de Cuyper**crashed efforts at the **Arsenal**goal. But the longer they went without the killer blow, the more time they were giving the Gunners to engineer a response. Eventually, Arteta’s men pulled it out of the bag.
Eze, again at the corner of the box, tried to flick a through ball behind for Nwaneri down the left channel. The pair produced another combination with a shot from the teenager that Steele smothered simply enough, but the connections on the left were growing and blossomed with a beautiful move.
Eze shifted inside his marker and moved the ball on to Merino, whose backheel set away Lewis-Skelly from a more central position. The left back hit a pullback for Nwaneri, and his fellow **Hale End**graduate nailed the finish, sweeping a strike into the corner of the net beyond Steele.
The Seagulls sought to respond with a triple substitution. **Yankuba Minteh**swapped in for Rutter, **Tommy Watson**replaced Gomez, and **Mats Wieffer**would take the place of de Cuyper.
The guests were going for an equaliser, and a great opening was gifted to them. Christian Mosquera loitered on the ball, and **Brighton**could break away. Watson’s cutback picked out Ayari as its target, but Hincapie held his position to block the effort, and the advantage of **Arsenal**remained intact.
Arteta elected to bring on three experienced pros to see out the game. Jurrien Timber and Gabriel Magalhaes sat in the back four with Lewis-Skelly and Mosquera. Dowman’s day also ended with the introduction of **Bukayo Saka**as a right winger. Their impact was almost immediate as Gabriel wreaked havoc from a corner kick, and Merino rose highest, forcing Steele to save his header.
But the extra firepower of the Gunners would not be denied for long. Timber powered his way forward on the dribble, threading a through ball for Harriman-Annous. The striker saw Steele stop his strike, but Saka was already on the move for a rebound and he doubled the lead for the hosts.
Declan Rice returned to the pitch to add more steel in the spine of the side, and Leandro Trossard earned minutes against his old club, coming the width of the post away from a third goal in injury time with a low drive.
Arteta will be happy to see so many senior figures willing and able to contribute in such circumstances, but what mattered most was moving into the next stage.
Player of the Match: Georginio Rutter
Trossard, Timber, and Saka all showed the type of quality that distinguishes the top players at the elite level— but they all only appeared for cameos. In truth, they should not have the chance to make such comfortable work of the win if **Brighton**had taken their chances in the first 50 minutes of the match.
Georginio Rutter was the man who stood out for the longest in the game. He again highlighted how strong he is as a player who progresses the ball into the final third and connects with his teammates. Guilty one of the big misses on the night, finishing is the thing that will take his game to a new level.