Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has given plenty of praise to Arsenal and Mikel Arteta ahead of the two sides meeting in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, backing them to make a push for the Premier League title this season. It comes after the Gunners have come flying out the blocks in the league, sitting top after 13 games.
Arteta's side have battled hard to ensure that place so far ahead of the break for the 2022 World Cup in mid-November, beating the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham to get there. In that time there has been plenty of fixtures to combat due to the upcoming break, leading to the need for greater rotation.
That was something that the manager praised his players for ahead of the Brighton clash, telling the official Arsenal website: "They’ve dealt with [the fixture list] really well. I think we had a really good pre-season and we put the boys in a really good condition to face this fixture congestion, and they have responded extremely well, especially the way we play which is really intense."
