The final four matches of the EFL Cup third round took place on Wednesday night. Arsenal faced a trip north to face Port Vale, while elsewhere Manchester City, Newcastle and some team in white all faced lower-league opposition. In the end, all three big boys, plus that other lot, progressed with relative ease.
Following the games, the draw for the last 16 took place, and Arsenal versus Brighton was one of four all-Premier League ties. Those games will take place on the 28th and 29th of October, with the Gunners confirmed for the latter date. On home soil, Mikel Arteta’s men should have too much for the Seagulls. The strength in depth in the Arsenal squad is the envy of just about every team in the league, and in the EFL Cup, that could give them a real advantage.
The summer spending, plus excellent youngsters like Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman, means that Arteta can make 11 changes and still field a really decent line-up. The club needs to win a trophy this term, and while the Carabao Cup will not be enough to keep all fans happy, it would be a start and could help breed the winning mentality the players need to go on to greater things.
Elsewhere in the fourth round, Liverpool will host Palace, Newcastle will get to beat Tottenham in the North East, and Chelsea will travel to Wolves. The Gunners have the squad to handle this competition alongside the Champions League and Premier League, and so winning it has to be the target.
Routine Victory Over Port Vale
Into the hat for the Fourth Round 🎩 pic.twitter.com/QmxFyUKpdA
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 24, 2025
Arsenal were expected to see off Port Vale, currently 19th in the third tier, with ease. That is exactly what they did, even if they failed to create too many great chances. Arteta knows this competition is important to the development of his squad, so while there were changes, he started lots of big names. Mikel Merino, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Eberechi Eze and William Saliba all started. They were joined by Ben White, Miles Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri, while Christian Norgaard and Kepa Arrizabalaga got their first starts for the club.
Eze opened his account with the Gunners after just eight minutes, a composed finish capping off a nice move. It will do the former Crystal Palace man a lot of good to get his first Arsenal goal, and it set his new club up for victory here. There was a neat, backheeled assist for Lewis-Skelly too, and he played the full 90 minutes, completing 97% of his 77 attempted passes.
Arsenal struggled to break down a determined Vale resistance. Although they had a massive 81% of the ball, they only managed 11 shots, with just four on target. That gave them a relatively meagre xG of 1.06, and so while this was an easy win, it was in no way a battering. Of course, the Gunners didn’t need to rack up the goals and scoring so early took the pressure off. They totally controlled the match and allowed their hosts just three shots on goal. Arrizabalaga did not have a single save to make, and the three efforts were speculative, producing xG of just 0.08 between them (two of the three were blocked).
Second Half Replacements
In the second half, Dowman replaced Saka, Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel played the last 19 minutes, and Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice got the final nine minutes to stretch their legs. Trossard did a little more than that, putting the game well and truly to bed after 86 minutes. He showed an excellent touch in taking Saliba’s fine pass down and finished very well to make it 2-0 from the edge of the area. It was a job well done by Arteta’s men, who know that tougher tests await them.
Brighton positively romped past Barnsley in the third round, winning 6-0 in South Yorkshire. Young Paraguayan Diego Gomez got four of those goals in his 75 minutes on the pitch, and he could be the next star off the Brighton conveyor belt. The Seagulls are not involved in Europe this year, so their fixture list is not quite as congested as Arsenal’s. However, they will travel to Man United before the last-16 EFL Cup tie and host Leeds the weekend after it, so they will be fatigued, nonetheless.
For Arteta’s troops, the EFL Cup clash will be sandwiched by a home game against Palace and a trip to Burnley. We remain confident that the manager has enough quality at his disposal to compete on all fronts this term and so fully expect another win at the Emirates when the time comes.