Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler could hand a full debut to Ferdi Kadioglu in Saturday's Premier League showdown against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
The Turkish left-back completed his big-money switch from Fenerbahce earlier this week after links with the Gunners earlier in the transfer window, as well as Manchester United.
Kadioglu was not involved in the midweek thrashing of Crawley Town in the EFL Cup, where Pervis Estupinan was fit enough to earn minutes as a substitute, but his lengthy absence with an ankle injury means that a start is surely out of the question for the Ecuadorian.
As a result, Kadioglu may oust Jack Hinshelwood for a start alongside Lewis Dunk, Joel Veltman and Jan Paul van Hecke in the Brighton backline in front of Jason Steele, who ceded his place to Bart Verbruggen in the cup.
Nine minutes into that thrashing of Crawley, Matt O'Riley was forced off with a worrying ankle injury, and there is no guarantee that Brajan Gruda and Mats Wieffer will recover from their knocks in time for Saturday either.
Billy Gilmour is still on his way to Napoli despite O'Riley's injury, so Carlos Baleba should join James Milner in an unchanged midfield duo, as Manchester United match-winner Joao Pedro pulls the strings just ahead of the pair.
Operating in between Yankuba Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck reunites with his old club on the back of scoring in his first two games of the 2024-25 season; not since January 2014 has he netted in three straight Premier League matches.
Brighton & Hove Albion possible starting lineup:
Steele; Veltman, Dunk, Van Hecke, Kadioglu; Milner, Baleba; Minteh, Pedro, Mitoma; Welbeck
> Click here to see how Arsenal could line up for this clash
Ben Knapton
