Arsenal vs Brentford Preview | Latest Team News | Expected Line-Up | Predicted Score

Arsenal will be looking to avoid an upset when we take on Brentford in the third round of the Carabao Cup at the Emirates tonight. 

Unai Emery has enjoyed an encouraging start to life in England after replacing Arsene Wenger in the summer as after losing our opening two Premier League games against Manchester City and Chelsea we’ve won our last five matches in all competitions.

There have been signs of improvement in recent weeks and Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Everton moved us to within just one point of fourth-placed Watford ahead of our clash on Saturday so the players should be in confident mood tonight.

This will be Emery’s first taste of domestic cup action here in England and Arsenal will be up against an impressive Brentford side who play some great football under Dean Smith and are pushing for promotion in the Championship so we shouldn’t take anything for granted.

Team News

Emery is set to make wholesale changes to his side as he looks to rest key players with the likes of Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette expected to drop out.

Sokratis is unlikely to be risked after picking up a dead leg at the weekend and Henrikh Mkhitaryan is also a doubt after missing the Everton game with an ankle injury while Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Laurent Koscielny remain absent.

Sead Kolasinac returned to full training this week after recovering from a knee injury that’s kept him on the sidelines all season so he could be given some minutes while Carl Jenkinson is also back from an ankle problem.

Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Rob Holding, Mohamed Elneny, Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi are all expected to start while youngsters Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah could also be given the chance to impress in the first team.

Brentford could welcome Moses Odubajo back from a knee injury but midfielder Josh Clarke is a doubt so he could join Rico Henry on the sidelines.

Expected line-up

Predicted score

Arsenal 3-1 Brentford: Arsenal have an excellent record against lower league opposition in this competition as we haven’t lost at home to a side outside the Premier League in the League Cup since 1983 – an unbeaten run stretching 30 matches. Brentford are easy on the eye and this should be a good game but I think our B-team should still be too much for the Championship hopefuls to handle.