Morning all.

It’s Saturday 12th August, it’s Arsenal v Nottingham Forest, our opening fixture of the new season. A season which could be wide open as far as both the title and top four goes. Arsenal’s transfer business has been very good but other clubs have strengthened well too. Chelsea have spent another vast amount of money on ten new arrivals in hope Poch will be able to work a few miracles. If Sky Sports are to be believed, Caicedo and Lavia could be the next through their door as well as others. Liverpool, who Caicedo has allegedly rejected, have added just two players to their squad, Utd four, including Johnny Evans.

What’s been noticeable though is that the same clubs have lost experienced players. Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool especially. Including academy players, Chelsea have moved on 28 players, including Omari Hutchinson who left Arsenal probably believing he’d be playing first team football by now. Instead, he’s on loan at Ipswich. The grass isn’t always greener Omari!

Nottingham Forest have dipped into the transfer market too, not in the kind of numbers of last summer when they were like kids in a sweet shop but nevertheless, five new players have arrived to date with Matt Turner being one of them. He’s bound to be ready for today’s game, no doubt hoping to prove he’s better than Aaron Ramsdale.

This is the first time for four years that Arsenal have kicked off a new season with a home fixture.

Back in October last year, Nottingham Forest looked like a club destined for relegation and manager Steve Cooper looked likely to be one of the early contenders for the chop. 13 games had been played, they had a goal average of -20 and just 9 points were on the board, 3 of which came after beating Liverpool the week before. If that victory concerned Arsenal fans, they needn’t have worried because Arsenal thrashed Forest with relative ease. 5-0 which started with a Martinelli header, followed by two quick goals from Nelson, who’d replaced an injured Saka on 30 mins, a thunderbolt from Partey and finally, one from  Odegaard. 69% possession, 24 shots on goal with 10 on target.

Forest got revenge in May of this year when they beat us 1-0 at The City Ground despite Mikel Arteta’s team having 82% possession. The result meant Forest stayed up, City were crowned title winners and Arteta and his players had to settle for 2nd place.

Forest have played seven fixtures in pre season which means they’re likely to be in pretty good physical shape but in those seven fixtures, they managed to score just three goals. Arsenal have played one less including a Community Shield defeat of Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta’s pre match press conference didn’t reveal much other than the club aren’t planning to make any more player signings and there’s nothing to say about the future of Flo Balogun. The rest was about keeping every player happy, invincible players being around the squad and how well Steve Cooper has done at Forest.

Mikel Arteta:

I’m super excited, I think it’s a new challenge and a new opportunity. We’re very fresh to start again and we’re excited to play our first game at home as it’s been a while. [Forest beat us last season] in a really clever way and they deserved on the day to get the points. Tomorrow (today) we’re going to have to play better to deserve more.

He’s a hoot isn’t he…

Whether he’ll bring in any more players before the end of the window:

At the moment we are not planning to do anything, but the window is very unpredictable and things can happen that probably we don’t wish for, so at the moment we are happy with what we’ve got.

We’ll see…..

I imagine Forest will be happy for us to have the majority of the ball with his side staying compact in  defence. Then, if and when the opportunity arises, they’ll break quickly and try to make the most of any attacking threat they can. Totts linked Brennan Johnson and Morgan Gibbs-White are their dangerous players, as is Taiwo Awoniyi but I believe the latter is ruled out through injury. Chris Wood, if he features, can cause problems too. But, Arsenal should by now be wise to this tactic because so many other managers deploy it. They also try coming out of the blocks quickly, hoping to catch our players half asleep. Yes, we’ve fallen foul of that too many times before.

This is day one of a new season and we’re the home team. It’s up to Mikel Arteta’s team to set the pace of the game, the control, the slick and organised football to blow Forest away early and then take them to the cleaners. Be confident, assured and clinical in every department.

We know Gabriel Jesus misses out today so the only question waiting to be answered is whether Mikel Arteta will go with Eddie Nketiah, or will one of Kia Havertz or Leandro Trossard take up the central position of a front three. All three of our new signings are likely to make their home debut today. (Raya yet to be confirmed by Arsenal)

Officials for today’s game are:

  • Referee: Michael Oliver
  • Assistants: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook
  • Fourth Official: Darren Bond
  • VAR: Jarred Gillett
  • Assistant VAR: Darren Cann

Manchester City romped to a 3-0 victory over Burnley last night. Kevin de Bruyne suffered an injury which looks likely to keep him out for a while and Burnley had a player sent off.

Yep, the Premier League is back. Mikel Arteta is excited, are you?

Catch up in the comments..

 

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