Nottingham Forest welcome Premier League champions Arsenal to the City Ground on Sunday as they look for just their second league victory of the season. The Gunners bounced back to winning ways against Leeds last weekend, while securing a 3-0 win over Lille in midweek.
Oliver Glasner needs to get Forest firing
Oliver Glasner’s appointment at Nottingham Forest was certainly a surprise, especially considering he was leaving Crystal Palace – a club in which he had led to three trophies in the space of 12 months – in order to join them. Initially, it did look like an astute move from a Forest perspective, yet the Austrian has yet to weave his magic thus far.
Their only win across seven matches in all competitions came against Aston Vila last month, with the City Ground side currently occupying 15th in the league table.
A visit from Arsenal is hardly going to make things easier, although Forest’s record at home against the Gunners since returning to the top flight is encouraging. Indeed, across four meetings, Forest have suffered just one defeat to their opponents, even securing a 1-0 win in May 2023. Could Glasner turn his club’s season around by gaining a positive result on Sunday afternoon? Who knows.
Back-to-back defeats has sunk morale and unless things change swiftly, the team could be dragged into a relegation dogfight. If that happens, how much patience will owner Evangelos Marnakis have regarding Glasner’s future at the club? Given his recent track record, not much.
Arsenal look to maintain pace at the top
A mental reset was required after the international break, with the 3-0 defeat to Brighton still fresh in the minds. Last weekend, it appeared as though Arsenal were going to drop more points. Leeds took the lead shortly after the break, but goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Bruno Guimaraes sealed an important win for the home side.
A midweek victory over Lille has the North Londoners in a superb mood ahead of this clash against Forest. Mikel Arteta has only won once across four games at this ground in the Premier League, however.
The Spaniard will be aiming to ensure that loss to the Seagulls was a one-off and if his team performs as they have throughout the majority of this season, another three points should be secured.
Bukayo Saka has already notched three league goals this term and he enjoyed a wonderful cameo against Lille, netting once and chipping in with an assist. He will surely return to the starting XI on Sunday and Arteta will expect a similar sort of performance to that in midweek.
Arsenal could find themselves six points behind Man City ahead of the game, meaning a win is imperative.
Team news
Igor Jesus and Nicolo Savona will be absent for Forst ahead of this game, while Morgan Gibbs-White is a doubt for the clash. On a more positive note, Nikola Milenković could make a return having begun training again.
Piero Hincapié, Christos Tzolis and William Saliba are all missing for Arsenal this weekend due to injury.
Prediction
Forest haven’t quite clicked under Glasner as of yet and a clash against the reigning league champions, albeit at home, should pose plenty of problems.
The home side might take solace in the fact Arsenal have only won once here since Glasner’s side sealed promotion in 2022, but that doesn’t take away from the enormity of the task ahead.
Arteta’s men have won back-to-back games and will surely be confident of making that three in a row this Sunday.
