Mikel Arteta encourages 'co-opetition' among Arsenal players ahead of Carabao Cup tie

The Gunners sit top of the Premier League and advanced as winners of their Europa League group having been able to deal with playing twice every three days for much of the season.

The visit of Brighton in the Carabao Cup could present Arteta with a chance to rotate his squad, especially with a trip to face Wolves on Saturday night coming before the break for the World Cup.

The likes of Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Mohamed Elneny and Rob Holding will all be pushing for rare starts.

"We're going to pick a very competitive team," revealed Arteta.

"I think everyone deserves chances, and we'll make some changes with judgement in relation to the load of the players, but we'll play to win.

"It's a different competition but the purpose is the same - to play as good as we can, win the game and go to the next round. We know there are no second chances and we're going to take it seriously."

It could be easy for those on the periphery of the team to become disillusioned but Arteta hailed the approach of such players.

"We call co-opetition - it's compete, but co-operate. You need to understand on the day what your role is," he said of how important squad players have been in training sessions.

"But in training everybody has the same role, which is to be at their best and make the most out of that session. To be fair it's a joy of a group to work with because they're really at it every day.

"The ones that haven't played want to have their chance, and feel that they are contributing to the team. The positive thing is that everybody has played games and everyone has been important.

"I think it's been good because when they have been used, they have performed really well. Whether it's for periods in games in the Premier League and when they have started games in the Europa League and the Premier League, I think they have been really consistent."