Arsenal head into tonight's Carabao Cup meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion in a fantastic run of form, with the Gunners having bounced back from a 2-0 loss to PSV Eindhoven with three straight wins over Nottingham Forest, FC Zürich and Chelsea.

However, with the Reds undoubtedly hoping to keep hold of the Premier League top spot heading into the break for the World Cup, it would not be surprising to see Mikel Arteta rotate his starting XI for the visit of the Seagulls this evening - handing some of his lesser-seen squad members a chance to impress while also keeping his regular starters fresh.

And, one player it would appear an extremely wise move for the 40-year-old to unleash on Wednesday is Reiss Nelson, the winger who has so far been afforded just 225 minutes of first-team football in 2022/23.

Indeed, with the forward's current contract at The Emirates coming to an end next summer, time is running out for Arteta to decide whether or not the 22-year-old should be handed a new deal in north London.

Having said that, the £6m-rated talent already made a huge statement in his first Premier League outing of the season against Forest towards the end of October - something that should convince the Spaniard to give the forward at least one more chance.

Indeed, after being brought on as a first-half substitute - replacing the injured Bukayo Saka - Nelson ran the show for the Gunners, scoring two goals and registering one assist, as well as making two key passes, completing one dribble and taking three shots at the Garibaldi goal.

The £38k-per-week forward also completed one cross, one long ball and 34 of his 38 attempted passes - a success rate of 89% - in addition to winning three duels, one free kick and one tackle.

These metrics saw the player who Arteta himself claimed is "evolving" earn a simply sensational SofaScore match rating of 8.7, ranking him by far and away as the best player to feature in the fixture.

As such, with Arsenal undoubtedly hoping to keep up a Premier League title charge, a European run and domestic cup success for as long as possible this season, the addition of an in-form Nelson to Arteta's squad would provide the club's chances of doing so with a huge boost, leading us to believe that the 40-year-old must unleash the starlet vs Brighton tonight.