🕟 Kick Off: 15:00 GMT

📍 Location: Emirates Stadium, Islington, North London

📺 UK Broadcaster: N/A

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Simon Hooper

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Ben White (knee) is unavailable following surgery.
• Trossard sustained an injury during the international break, his current condition is unknown, although some reports suggest that it is minor and only bruising is keeping him out of action.
• Tomiyasu is still recovering following a knee injury.

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟧🟥🟥🟩🟧

🌳Nottingham Forest Team News:

• Danilo (ankle) and Sangere (thigh) are both out with long term injuries.
• Anderson will likely miss the game with a foot injury.

⚽ Nottingham Forest Form: 🟥🟩🟩🟩🟧

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal (30th Jan 2024, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2-1 Nottingham Forest (12th Aug 2023, Premier League)
• Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal (20th May 2023, Premier League)
• Arsenal 5-0 Nottingham Forest (30th Oct 2022, Premier League)
• Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal (9th Jan 2022, FA Cup)

📖 Match Facts:

• Nottingham Forest haven’t won away at Arsenal since the 11th of March 1989 in the old Division One, where they won 1-3.
• Nuno Espirito Santo has faced off against Arsenal 8 times as a manager, with a record of 3W 2D 3L.
• Arsenal haven’t won a league game since the 5th of October. Nottingham Forest won 3 games in this same time period.

🎲 Odds (Betway):

• Arsenal – 7/20
• Draw – 15/4
• Nottingham Forest – 8/1

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

That last match fact makes for grim reading. Our 3-1 victory against Southampton, which 48 days ago, was the last time we added three points to our points tally in the league, and even that win required us to come from behind in the second half. Since then, we took a shocking loss from Bournemouth away in a dire performance marked by a controversial sending off for William Saliba. We’ve drawn to Liverpool at Home after a late equalizer from Salah. We then lost to Newcastle away, and drew at Chelsea before this international break.

We need to start winning again. You know it. I know it. The players know it. Mikel Arteta will know it better than anyone. Liverpool are currently 9 points ahead of us, which is a huge gap, the likes of which only a great team could claw back (save for a collapse of the league leaders). I was about to write about Liverpool’s upcoming fixtures, but where we are now, we need to be focusing on ourselves and our own form.

The return of Martin Odegaard just before the break is a huge boost to Arsenal. He immediately made us better in attack and more fluid down the right hand side paired with Bukayo Saka. Unfortunately, the right side remains unsettled with Ben White having had surgery which is set to keep him out of action until at least the end of the calendar year. We are awaiting news on the status of Tomiyasu and Calafiori, but if they both remain unavailable, it seems inevitable that Thomas Partey will be taking on Right Back duties for the foreseeable. Could this mean we finally get to see a midfield of Merino, Rice, and Odegaard – the midfield that was promised? Perhaps, but don’t expect it to be perfect straight away.

With Odegaard back, we will likely see Havertz return to his best position up front, flanked by Martinelli and Saka, with Trossard potentially on the sidelines for a few weeks. Martinelli needs to find form soon. We’ve seen flashes of what we know he can do, but he is still far from his best. Sterling has yet to make an impact in North London, and I don’t think he can currently be counted on to offer anything that Martinelli can’t, even on his off days.