Mikel Arteta labelled Arsenal's EFL Cup win against Brighton as "very special" after his younger players made a big impact at the Emirates Stadium.

Max Dowman became the first player to start for a Premier League side before the age of 16 in all competitions (15 years, 302 days), while 17-year-old Andre Harrison-Annous also started on his debut.

Meanwhile, Myles Lewis-Skelly assisted Ethan Nwaneri for Arsenal's opener before fellow academy graduate Bukayo Saka doubled their lead.

And after seeing through the 2-0 victory, Arsenal became the first English top-flight team in history to play six games in a month and win them all without conceding a single goal.

Arteta was not only pleased with the fact that they reached the quarter-final stage, where they will face Crystal Palace after they thrashed Liverpool 3-0, but the Spanish coach was glad his squad rotation paid off.

"A very special evening to be fair, very happy for various reasons," Arteta told Sky Sports.

"Obviously, we are in the quarter-finals, and we won the game against a really tough opponent.

"We made 10 changes, we played players that never played together, yet we made two huge debuts for Max [Dowman] and Andre [Harriman-Annous].

"That feeling of giving the opportunity to somebody and fulfilling a dream is unique, and I'm very happy that things turned out to be very positive, and we managed to win the game."

And on Nwaneri, Arteta added: "Really good and he came on the other day as well, and he's going to have those chances and when he has, he needs to make the most out of it.

"I think he took the goal really well."