Arsenal vs Brighton tips:
- Arsenal to win & both teams to score – 19/10 with William Hill
- Martin Odegaard to score at any time – 9/4 with BoyleSports
- Brighton to receive the most cards – 4/5 with Unibet
Brighton have enjoyed plenty of success on recent visits to Arsenal but a tired Seagulls side may struggle to disarm the Gunners on this occasion when the two teams meet on Sunday (2pm).
The south coast residents have won on four of their last five trips to the Emirates Stadium across all competitions and head to the capital boosted by qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League with a 1-0 win over Marseille on Thursday.
However, football betting sites don’t rate Brighton’s chances of another win at Arsenal too highly with the visitors as big as 6/1 with some bookmakers.
Arsenal are a best-price of 1/2 in the Premier League odds to get back to winning ways following a defeat to Aston Villa last weekend, followed by a 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League in midweek.
With the Gunners having already locked up top spot in their Champions League group, boss Mikel Arteta was able to rotate his team and give some players a break heading into the busy festive period.
His Brighton counterpart, Roberto De Zerbi, wasn’t afforded the same luxury and that could be the difference between the two sides come Sunday afternoon.
Arsenal may put an end to Brighton’s Emirates endeavours
The roles were reversed last season when a Brighton side with a spring in its step comprehensively outplayed an Arsenal team that had been ground down by their title race with Manchester City.
The Seagulls delivered one of the killing blows to the Gunners’ title dreams with their 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium last May, but Arteta’s team have seemingly put that disappointing end to last season behind them to mount another championship challenge.
They start the weekend one point behind leaders Liverpool in the standings after only their second league loss of the season at Villa.
Arsenal generated 1.51 expected goals at Villa Park but were wasteful as they failed to score for only the second time this season across all competitions.
Brighton haven’t kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since they last came to Arsenal, 20 games ago, and will face a tough time shutting down the Gunners at home, where they’ve been very strong recently.
The Gunners have won nine of their 11 home matches this season in all competitions and are looking for a seventh straight success at the Emirates this weekend.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice are all expected to return to the starting line-up having either been rested entirely or used as late substitutes against PSV in midweek, significantly boosting the strength of this Arsenal team.
De Zerbi’s hands are largely tied when it comes to team selection due to a large injury list, while he has two days less to prepare for this clash.
But Brighton will no doubt go at Arsenal and cause issues for a Gunners defence who have kept one clean sheet at home in the league this season.
The Seagulls have scored in all but one of their last 32 games in all competitions and both teams to score looks like a natural fit alongside an Arsenal win when examining betting sites.
The Gunners can’t afford another home slip up against Brighton and we’re backing them at 19/10 with William Hill to win a game with goals at both ends as our first Arsenal vs Brighton prediction.
Arsenal vs Brighton Tip 1: Arsenal to win & both teams to score – 19/10 with William Hill
Birthday boy may receive goal gift
Arsenal captain Odegaard celebrates his 25th birthday on Sunday and the old football cliché goes that the best present of all would be three points.
But even better than just three points would be a goal for the Norwegian, who has looked sharp since returning from a spell on the sidelines.
He was heavily involved in opening up Wolves on Arsenal’s last home game and got himself a goal on that occasion as he notched for the second match in a row at the Emirates.
Odegaard now has seven goals this season and given Brighton’s defensive issues, he may fancy his chances with BoyleSports making him 9/4 to score at any time.
Since his return from injury, Odegaard has registered at least one shot on target in four of his last five starts, while this is a fixture he tends to enjoy.
Since moving to north London, Odegaard has registered four goals involvements against Brighton, split evenly between goals and assists.
As he’s odds-on with betting apps in the any time goal or assist betting, we’re taking the bigger price on him just to score at any time.
Arsenal vs Brighton Tip 2: Martin Odegaard to score at any time – 9/4 with BoyleSports
Brighton booking count could be high
Referee Tim Robinson takes charge of Arsenal for the third time this season having only dished out one yellow card to the Gunners so far.
That may seem low but Arsenal have only collected 21 cautions in total all season, the fewest in the division by some margin with Liverpool next in the standings on 28 yellows.
Brighton are all the way up in fourth place with double the amount of bookings Arsenal have received with 26 of those yellows coming away from home.
The Seagulls have had at least two cautions in every Premier League away game this season and picked up five yellows in each of their last two matches on the road.
Given Arsenal’s excellent disciplinary record this season and Brighton’s flurry of cards recently, we’ve backing the Seagulls to receive the most cards at 4/5 with Unibet for our final Arsenal vs Brighton prediction.
Arsenal vs Brighton Tip 3: Brighton to receive the most cards – 4/5 with Unibet
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Last Updated: 14th March 2024, 07:22 AM