{"id":328315,"date":"2025-12-21T15:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/328315\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T15:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:23:07","slug":"arsenal-lineup-vs-crystal-palace-predicted-xi-for-efl-cup-quarter-final-as-gabriel-jesus-joshua-nichols-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/328315\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal lineup vs. Crystal Palace: Predicted XI for EFL Cup quarter-final as Gabriel Jesus, Joshua Nichols start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal<\/a> striker Gabriel Jesus<\/a> could be in line for his first start in almost a year when the Gunners host Crystal Palace<\/a> in Tuesday’s EFL Cup quarter-final.<\/p>\n

The Brazil international memorably took down the Eagles with a hat-trick in this exact fixture last year and has now made three straight appearances off the bench since recovering from a devastating ACL injury.<\/p>\n

Viktor Gyokeres<\/a> was the match-winner in Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League success at Everton<\/a>, but the Swede’s all-around play still left something to be desired, and Jesus is surely now ready for either 45 or 60 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

The South American could form part of a new-look front three for Arsenal, as Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli could benefit from the tight turnaround to replace Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard respectively.<\/p>\n

Martin Zubimendi<\/a> looked uncharacteristically lethargic against Everton too, so Christian Norgaard should be a certainty in the number six role, potentially alongside Eberechi Eze and Mikel Merino in a new-look midfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, defensive shortages mean that William Saliba and Riccardo Calafiori should be retained, although the latter could move across to left centre-back, thus allowing Myles Lewis-Skelly to start at left-back and Piero Hincapie to enjoy a well-earned rest.<\/p>\n

Jurrien Timber is also due a break, but Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera’s injuries complicate matters on the right for Mikel Arteta<\/a>, who may therefore have no choice but to throw in 19-year-old Joshua Nichols<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teenager made his first and only Arsenal appearance to date against Bolton Wanderers in last year’s EFL Cup, and he could be part of a rejigged backline protecting Kepa Arrizabalaga.<\/p>\n

Arsenal possible starting lineup:<\/p>\n

Kepa; Nichols, Saliba, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly; Eze, Norgaard, Merino; Madueke, Jesus, Martinelli<\/p>\n

> Click here to see how Palace could line up for this game<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus could be in line for his first start in almost a year when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4985,5906,218,372,5904,3553,5905,221,5903,217,101,3022,5907,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-328315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-epl","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-golf","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-premier-league","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-mole","20":"tag-teams","21":"tag-tennis","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}