2025-26 Carabao Cup: Quarter-Finals – Arsenal vs Crystal Palace

Arsenal meet Crystal Palace in a blockbuster London derby to wrap up the 2025-26 Carabao Cup Quarter-Finals.

Victory would see Arsenal reach consecutive semi-finals for the first time since a three-season run between 2005-08 seasons, whilst Palace seek a first semi-final appearance since 2011-12 season.

The winner of this tie will meet Chelsea in the semi-finals, with the first leg away before they entertain Enzo Maresca’s Blues at home in the second leg.

 

Team News

Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 1-0 Premier League victory at Everton.

Max Dowman, Cristhian Mosquera (both ankle), Ben White (hamstring), Gabriel (adductor) and Kai Havertz (knee) remain sidelined.

Palace have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 4-1 Premier League defeat at Leeds.

Cheick Doucoure, Chadi Riad, Daniel Munoz (all knee), Daichi Kamada (hamstring), Ismaila Sarr (international duty), Rio Cardines (adductor) and Caleb Kporha (back) remain absent.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Arsenal host Palace at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday 23 December at 8pm GMT, live on ITV1, ITVX and Sky Sports in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Arsenal have lost just one of their last five meetings against Palace in this competition (W3, D1, L1).
• Palace have won one of three League Cup trips to Arsenal (W1, L2), although two of those visits were at the Gunners’ former home – Highbury.
• Two of the three League Cup meetings between Arsenal and Palace in North London ended in 2-0 results, of which both teams took one win apiece whilst Arsenal won their recent clash by a 3-2 result.
• Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have won their two matches in this season’s competition by 2-0 results, having beat Port Vale away in the third round then defeated Brighton at home in the fourth round.
• Palace have won two of three ties against fellow Premier League opposition in this competition since Oliver Glasner took charge (W2, L1), with the sole defeat having coincidentally come at Arsenal at this stage last season.

 

Prediction

Having needed a penalty to scrape past Everton amidst wasteful finishing in open play, Arsenal now need to put in a more composed clinical performance in terms of their end product if want to continue their challenge for the quadruple.

Palace likewise had their own issues up front but defensively they were uncharacteristically lacking intensity in their marking, especially from throw-ins which Leeds executed brilliantly to punish such loose play so a tighter defence is needed if want to win this tie.

My instinct though is that Arsenal will just turn out a more polished display but I nevertheless expect this to be close as neither team have nothing to lose really with a two-legged London derby semi at stake.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace

Result: Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace (Arsenal win 8-7 on penalties)