Merry Christmas Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion supporters! We hope Santa Claus brought you what you wanted last night. Tomorrow brings Boxing Day, and with that a fixture for every team in the Premier League. Let’s take a look at the fitness and injury situation for this match, starting with the visitors.
The big news came on Christmas Eve with the north London club announcing that winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan is out for up to six weeks due to a fractured metatarsal in his right foot.
The Armenian national team captain and January acquisition from Manchester United was subbed off at half-time of the League Cup loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
Meanwhile full-back Nacho Monreal (right hamstring) faces a late fitness test ahead of the Boxing Day match while centre-back Shkodran Mustafi (hamstring) is expected to return to full training this week.
Meanwhile defender Hector Bellerin (calf) is not expected to return for another two weeks yet. Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are long term absentees for the Gunners. Some reports have ruled them out for the rest of the season. Finally, Emile Smith Rowe and Dinos Mavropanos have both resumed training to some extent and are expected to be back in contention before the end of the month.
Switching over to the hosts now, Brighton are likely to be without wingers Jose Izquierdo and Alireza Jahanbakhsh. Lewis Dunk is suspended for this one after getting red carded at Bournemouth this past Saturday but Shane Duffy will be back after his ban.
Arsenal FC at Brighton & Hove Albion FYIs
Kick-off: 5:15pm (BST), 12:15 pm (EST) Wednesday December 26, Falmer Stadium
Google Result Probability: Arsenal win 56%, Draw 26%, Brighton win-18%
Odds via Bet365: Arsenal win 8/11, draw 14/5, Brighton 9/2
Arsenal Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Prediction: Arsenal FC 2, Brighton 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.