Arsenal vs Crystal Palace live: Team news and line-ups from Carabao Cup quarter-final

The teams are out and it’s nearly time for kick-off at the Emirates!

Arsenal XI: Kepa, Timber, Saliba, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Merino, Eze, Martinelli, Madueke, Jesus

Crystal Palace XI: Benitez, Canvot, Richards, Lacroix, Guehi, Mitchell, Wharton, Lerma, Pino, Nketiah, Mateta

Christian Norgaard tells Sky Sports: “It surely does [feel like a big opportunity to win a trophy]. Every competition is important for us, we’ve now reached the quarter-final stage, so it is getting closer to a potentialfinal, but we know we are up against a tough opponent.

“There will be time now to rest some players and rotate, but at least for me, this is a great opportunity to get some minutes in the legs and feel sharpness so you have that feeling you are ready to contribute.”

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner wasn’t impressed by the tight scheduling of fixtures his side have had to endure in recent weeks.

He said: “I think to fix a round when a Conference League is played just shows also the [lack of] respect for the Conference League because they would never fix a round when there is a Champions League round or a Europa League round. So I think that’s maybe the problem for the game we have to play now, and why we have to play in three days again.

“But it shows that we are in four competitions and we want these games, we want this amount of games, and it’s not to complain about it. We are never complaining about the amount of games.”

Marc Guehi tells Sky Sports: “It is always nice to have a game right away [after a defeat], so yes, looking forward to it.

“It will be different [from the Leeds game] in terms of the way they play, but set pieces will stay the same, so make sure we are strong on those and hopefully get a good result today.”

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard had this to say in tonight’s programme notes: “It’s a bit unusual that the draw has already been made, and we know we will face Chelsea in the next round if we can win tonight, but that doesn’t make any difference to how we approach this game. Our focus is just on winning this one because we all know how good a team Crystal Palace are. They have given us plenty of good battles in recent times, and they are having a really good season again. So we will have to be at our best to win this one, completely ready, and we will do everything to get through.

“In this competition things can go really quickly, and if we can win this one tonight, then all of a sudden you feel close to the chance of a trophy. So that’s a big motivation for this one, we are one step away from a semi-final. Let’s make the most of the opportunity because we are here to win trophies.”

Chelsea vs Arsenal OR Crystal Palace

Newcastle United vs Manchester City

Semi-final first-leg ties will be played in the week commencing 12 January, with the second-leg matches taking place in the week commencing 2 February.

The final will be held at Wembley on 22 March 2026.

The other semi-final match-up sees holders Newcastle face Manchester City, who respectively saw off Fulham and Brentford to book their place in the last four. Chelsea and Newcastle will be the home teams for the first legs before going away for the second legs.

With Gabriel Jesus set for his first start in nearly a year, Richard Jolly took a look at Arsenal’s options up front: