Forest v Arsenal – who scores wins…

Morning guys.

What on earth went on at the G-tec stadium yesterday? Brentford were 1-0 up, looking good for a win against Liverpool and then they shot themselves in the proverbial foot when Yehor Yarmoliuk head butted Jeremy Jacquet and was shown a straight red card. Earlier, Chelsea beat Everton 2-0 and Man City scraped past Ipswich 3-2 at The Etihad. In the late game, Villa defeated Newcastle 1-0. Man City are the only club yet to drop points.

Anyway, it’s our turn today as we face Nottingham Forest away from home. It’s hard to know what Forest are really about this season. They held Liverpool to a draw at Anfield, were beaten at home by Leeds and Coventry, defeated Villa in the Black Country and drew at home against Totts. Their last fixture ended in a 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park but by all accounts, they had enough opportunities to win the game comfortably. 24 to be precise.

Make to bones about it, this has banana skin written all over it. We have won just one of the last six fixtures at Forest. The last two have seen us come away from The City Ground with a point in each and zero goals.

Last season was with a fully fit and healthy squad too, something we won’t have today with William Saliba, Piero Hincapie, Christos Tzolis and possibly Martin Zubimendi ruled out through injury albeit Mikel Arteta hopes the latter might be fit enough to make the squad.

For now though, I suspect our starting midfield will consist of Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, or Bruno Guimaraes. Our fixture against Bayern Munich on Wednesday might be in Arteta’s mind although I hope not as this game is the most important right now. Bayern can wait.

Talking Tactics from Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke :

The table can sometimes be misleading, and I believe that’s the case with Forest, whose performances have warranted more than their five points. In Glasner’s trademark 3-4-2-1 shape they have been very creative, manufacturing the division’s second-highest number of big chances. Their big issue has been poor finishing, converting only 4.72% of their attempts into goals.

The three players who make them tick attacking-wise are Gibbs-White, Dan Ndoye and James McAtee. We know all about Gibbs-White’s talent, but Swiss international Ndoye has been extremely positive of late, running at defenders and firing off shots. In central midfield, ex-Manchester City youngster McAtee has shown a lovely eye for a pass, creating 11 chances in open play.

Defensively, Glasner’s men are strong. They were unusually flaky at Crystal Palace, but generally keep opponents at arm’s length, facing the joint-second-fewest shots (64), only one behind us. Centre-back Murillo is their standout defender, but the industry of new holding midfielder Xaver Schlager should not be underestimated either.

Forest are not possession-heavy or especially focused on pressing, but Glasner’s teams are usually superbly organised and clear in their strategies. They do attack at speed, and that is something we must be wary of, so this is going to be a stern examination.

Well, if Forest don’t press high, aren’t particularly focused on possession and are quick on the break whilst being defensively strong, one can only assume they are going to set out to be compact at the back and try to hit us on the break.

Morgan Gibbs-White is a very good player in my opinion, a dangerous player who can hurt the best of teams. He’s creative, his passing is excellent and never gives up. Like I said, he’s a dangerous player who I’d love to one day see in an Arsenal shirt. Oliver Glasner suggested he’s a doubt for today’s game but I’m pretty sure he’ll be fit. Nikola Milenkovic is also a doubt while both Igor Jesus and Nicolo Savona are ruled out through injury.

I guess the assumption ahead of this game is that Kai Havertz will in all likelihood start although I’d rather see Viktor Gyokeres, with Bukayo Saka on the right and Noni Madueke on the left. Perhaps the latter deserves another start there after his much improved performance against Leeds Utd. We need to see another display like that should he start. Defensively, Riccardo Calafiori is more than likely to start after having a bit of a breather in midweek but it’s a toss up for who partners Gabriel between Cristhian Mosquera or Ezri Konsa for who partners him. Ben White gets my nod for right back purely because Jurrien Timber needs handling with kid gloves until he’s 100%. Mind you, White isn’t far behind him when it comes to that.

As said, The City Ground has not favoured us in the past but the past is irrelevant today. We are the defending champions so I hope we go there and play like champions. Respect Forest because as Arteta said during his press conference, their league position doesn’t truly reflect how they been playing. For them, goals have been hard to come and we of all fans know how that feels.

Hopefully we won’t have that feeling later today.

Catch up in the comments.