Goals from Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka helped Arsenal to progress to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Mikel Merino’s fine flick helped start a flowing team move, rounded off by Nwaneri early in the first half, before substitute Saka powered in a second of the contest on 76 minutes.
The result means we’ve reached to the last eight for a second season in a row and marked our 250th match in the competition with a victory.
history makers
History was made before a ball had been kicked as Max Dowman, aged 15 years and 302 days old, was named as our youngest ever player to start a competitive match. A fellow academy product joined him in the attack in the shape of Andre Harriman-Annous, who was making his first appearance for us and became the 924th player to represent the club.
The teenage pair were two of 10 changes made by Mikel Arteta following the win over Crystal Palace. Another was goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, making his home debut, who was called into action twice in the first 10 minutes, first saving comfortably from Carlos Baleba before denying Georginio Rutter when the forward was one-on-one with the Spaniard.
The Seagulls then produced a quickfire counter-attack to put Stefanos Tzimas through on goal, but the Greek international could only fire wide when put under pressure from Kepa.
Despite the early attacks from our visitors, we grew into the contest with Dowman seeing a lot of the ball and showing what he can do, cutting inside and giving Maxim De Cuyper plenty of problems throughout the half.
As we edged towards half-time, Cristhian Mosquera had to be alert to deny Tzimas from close range, our Spanish defender reading the game well to block the shot. From the resulting corner, Jan Paul van Hecke rose highest but couldn’t direct his header on target.
ethan’s breakthrough
Dowman continued to show spark on the right wing at the start of the second half. The teenager darted into the box and claimed for a penalty after contact from Olivier Boscagli but referee Sam Barrott gave a goal kick.
After Kepa had produced his latest save, this time to deny De Cuyper’s thunderous drive, Nwaneri went closest to finding the net for, but Jason Steele saved his effort low to his right.
But we didn’t have to wait long for the breakthrough, and it was a fine team move that broke the deadlock. Merino’s sensational backheel found Myles Lewis-Skelly in space down the left and the full-back was able to cut back to Nwaneri, who fired low beyond the diving Steele.
We went in search of a second immediately, Eze was found well down the left but his effort was deflected over. The Seagulls looked for a way back into the game and almost found it when Tom Watson dispossessed Mosquera and found Yasin Ayari, but his shot was blocked well by Piero Hincapie, making his first start in red.
bukayo at the double
A trio of substitutions saw Dowman make way for Bukayo Saka, who immediately caused problems down the right and with his set-piece delivery.
His inswinging corner was met first by the towering Merino, but his header was well stopped on the line by Steele.
We continued to flow through the gears and had our second on 76 minutes. A lung-busting run from Jurrien Timber saw our Dutchman play through Harriman-Annous who was denied a debut goal by Steele but the Brighton stopper couldn’t prevent Saka from doubling our lead.
There was almost time for a third as late substitute Leandro Trossard tried his luck from the edge of the box but was denied by the bottom of the post.
A latest clean sheet was on the line and we defended resolutely to produce at sixth shutout in a row and steer us into the last eight of the competition.
what’s next
Following our Carabao Cup fourth round win, we head to Turf Moor to take on Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday, November 1. The following Tuesday sees us head to Slavia Prague in the Champions League for our fourth game of the league phase.
