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Arsenal vs Brighton preview | Latest team news, line-ups + predicted score

By on December 5, 2019

freddie ljungberg arsenal

Freddie Ljungberg needs to get Arsenal back to winning ways when we take on Brighton at the Emirates Stadium this evening.

We didn’t get the usual ‘manager bounce’ following Unai Emery’s departure as Ljungberg was held to a 2-2 draw away to Norwich City in his first game in charge last weekend. Arsenal looked better in possession but familiar problems at the back meant we had to settle for a point.

The draw extended our winless run to an incredible eight matches in all competitions so Freddie has to get us back on track tonight. Arsenal currently sit 10th in the table – 10 points off fourth place – so anything other than a win and we can forget about the top four.

However, Brighton arrive in north London also desperate for points. They are 16th in the Premier League table and just one point above the relegation zone after losing 2-1 to Liverpool at the weekend so they’ll be battling hard to get a positive result at Arsenal tonight.

Team news

Arsenal have confirmed that Dani Ceballos remains on the sidelines as the midfielder is still nursing his hamstring injury. Hopefully he’ll resume full training soon as he’s expected back in mid-December.

Ceballos is our only significant absentee as Hector Bellerin is back in full training after recovering from a hamstring injury while Rob Holding has also overcome a knock so they should be in contention this evening.

As for Brighton, they’ll be without Solly March and Jose Izquierdo due to injuries but Bernardo is available again.

Preferred line-up

I hope Ljungberg mixes things up as I think he got his team selection wrong against Norwich. Shkodran Mustafi is a disaster and David Luiz and Sokratis aren’t much better so I’d love to see Calum Chambers given a chance to form a partnership alongside Holding in the middle of defence.

I also hope we see Kieran Tierney recalled at left-back while Bellerin should start on the right. I’d like to see Arsenal line-up 4-2-3-1 with Matteo Guendouzi alongside Lucas Torreira in midfield and Mesut Ozil in the No.10 role.

It appears Nicolas Pepe is in Ljungberg’s bad books for not training hard enough but I really don’t want to see our big money summer signing turn into a disaster so let’s give him a chance to show what he can do on the pitch. Obviously Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette should also start but we’ll have the likes of Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka as options from the bench.

This would be my line-up:

football formations

Expected Brighton XI: Ryan; Montoya, Webster, Dunk, Burn; Propper, Stephens, Alzate; Gross, Maupay, Trossard

Predicted score

Arsenal are on a woeful run but this could be a good game for us, as long as we don’t underestimate Brighton. They like to play football and won’t just sit ten men behind the ball so we should have opportunities to get forward and score goals. The problem is keeping them out at the other end. Arsenal have to tighten things up in defence if we want to start winning games again.

We have never lost at home to Brighton, have lost just one of our last 25 league games at the Emirates and the Seagulls have lost their last four away games so I’m confident we can finally get back to winning ways. If Ljungberg gets the team selection right, I fancy Arsenal to win 3-1.

Arsenal 3-1 Brighton