🕟 Kick Off: 15:00 BST

🏟️ Venue: American Express Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: N/A

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Darren England

📹 VAR: Tim Wood

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• William Saliba: Long term injury. Saliba is taking an extended break from football to heal his back without the need for surgery.
• Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie, Jurrien Timber: Uncertain. Arteta said regarding these players: “All good. We have another training session”.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

🕊️ Brighton Team News:

• Stefanos Tzimas (Knee): Ruled Out. Suffered a minor setback in rehabilitation that extended his recovery timeline.
• Yankuba Minteh (Calf/Shin/Heel): Ruled Out. Sidelined with lower-leg damage requiring an extended absence.
• Kaoru Mitoma (Thigh): Ruled Out. Nursing a thigh injury and will not feature before the upcoming international break.
• Jack Hinshelwood (Other): Ruled Out. Currently being assessed and held out until after the international window.
• Mats Wieffer (Knee): Ruled Out. Sustained an awkward knee tweak following a collision.
• Michael Svoboda (Knee): Ruled Out. Experienced a minor knee reaction and is completing training drills on the pitch.
• Zadok Yohanna (Other/Conditioning): Ruled Out. Managing a minor physical issue.
• Evan Ferguson (Ankle/Foot): Ruled Out. Continuing daily rehabilitation following ankle surgery.
• Femi Azeez (Thigh): Doubt (50% Chance). Resumed training and remains under late medical assessment to determine if he can make the matchday squad.

⚽ Brighton Form: 🟩🟩🟧🟥🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Brighton 0–1 Arsenal (Mar 4, 2026, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2–1 Brighton (Dec 27, 2025, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2–0 Brighton (Oct 29, 2025, EFL Cup Round 4)
• Brighton 1–1 Arsenal (Jan 4, 2025, Premier League)
• Arsenal 1–1 Brighton (Aug 31, 2024, Premier League)

📖 Match Facts:

• Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 6 Premier League encounters against Brighton (4 wins, 2 draws), keeping clean sheets in 4 of those matches.
• Brighton have scored 13 goals in their four Premier League games so far this season, making it their best start in 14 seasons.
• Brighton haven’t won at the Amex since June 2020; three losses and two draws since.
• Bukayo Saka scored on each of his last three visits to the Amex Stadium

📸 Previously in this fixture…

Arsenal avoided a pecking by the Seagulls with a single goal by Saka inside the first 10 minutes on our last trip to the South Coast (although the Amex is in a huge field miles away from the coast, god bless those away fans). Brighton saw more of the ball, created more xG, took more shots, and had more touches in the box. But we held on to take three points which sent us 7 points clear at the top.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

Arsenal look to take 15 points from 15 in their opening 5 league games this season for only the third time in over two decades. We last did this in the 22/23 season with wins against Palace, Leicester, Bournemouth, Fulham, and Villa. Before that, you’d have to go back to the 04/05 season to find a 5/5 start to a Premier League season.

Despite their squad being ravaged by injuries, Brighton look a tough team to face at the moment. They sit in fifth place with 7 points, the same as Chelsea. Their league start has included a thrashing of Villa, a 7 goal thriller against Chelsea which they lost 4-3, a draw away at Leeds, and a 5-0 demolition of struggling Coventry (we only managed 3 goals against them). Fabian Hürzeler has proven to be a capable and pragmatic Premier League coach who we have struggled to beat at times. Whilst he hasn’t been able to beat Arteta, he has held us to two frustrating draws that could have gone either way.

On the subject of Fabian Hürzeler, he has had some strong things to say about this iteration of Arsenal, as recently as March 2026 after our 0-1 win at the Amex. Here are some of the highlights of his tantrum: “They are doing their own rules…they just do what they want”, “I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way”, “Did you really enjoy this football game?’”, and my personal favourite: “I think there was only one team who tried to play football today”. I reckon the team that won the league was definitely playing some pretty good football, but I’ll let you form your own opinions. In fairness to him, he would go on to call us deserving champions, but I’m going to hold a grudge anyway.

In terms of how we might line up, I expect that Bruno G will finally get his first league start in an Arsenal shirt after MLS was subbed at half time against Sunderland, and Bruno only played for an hour at Ipswich. It’s always been a matter of time before Bruno steps up to be a nailed on starter next to Declan Rice, which feels harsh on MLS, but one of these players is 19 and the other is a 28 year old that we just spent a lot of money on.

This will be a tough one, maybe our toughest yet. Hürzeler will want revenge after we doubled them last season, and as the league standings start to settle as we go into a three week extended break (which is ridiculous btw), Brighton will want to be in the Champions League places.