After putting Crystal Palace to the sword in our last outing, our 10-day wait for action comes to an end when we head to Nottingham to face Forest on Tuesday night.
We have been beaten on our last three visits to the City Ground but have the opportunity to record just our second-ever Premier League double over a Reds side still trying to find a balance under Nuno Espirito Santo, whose first seven matches have seen 24 goals fly in during some end-to-end affairs.
However with Liverpool and Manchester City playing 24 hours after us, the opportunity is there for us to cut the gap at the summit as we aim to continue to build momentum heading into the weekend’s visit of the Merseysiders.
Forest’s shoots of recovery under Nuno
Steve Cooper’s successful two-year stint in charge of Forest came to an end in December after one league win in 13 matches, having initially started the season in the same strong form that saw them surge in the final weeks to beat the drop last term.
Five days before Christmas Nuno was parachuted in to try and turn around their form, and after a 3-2 last-minute defeat at Bournemouth, he would record back-to-back wins against Newcastle United and Manchester United to breathe new life into the Reds’ season. However, another 3-2 loss at Brentford in their last league outing leaves them four points above the relegation places.
Also this month, they were forced to come from two goals down to force a replay against League One Blackpool in the FA Cup, and then required extra-time to see off the Seasiders at Bloomfield Road. That set up last week’s trip to Bristol City in the fourth round, which ended 0-0 and requires another replay.
What the managers say
Arteta: "I see what we can manage with our preparation and this is what we have tried to do against a team with a manager who I know really well. It’s going to be extremely competitive and we’ve had some really bad experiences over there in the last two seasons, so we’re going to have to be really good to beat them."
Read every word of Mikel's pre-match press conference.
Nuno: "It will be a difficult one. Arsenal are one of the best teams around and we know the quality of their players and their manager. What we rely on is the atmosphere at the City Ground. We know it's always important to get this energy from our crowd and go for the game."
Team news
We will be making some late decisions on the availability of Declan Rice and Gabriel. Declan had to come off during our last game while Gabriel was also substituted.
Thomas Partey recently returned to first team training but Tuesday's game comes too early for him. However, he could feature on the weekend against Liverpool.
Fabio Vieira or Jurrien Timber are both still unavailable.
Mohamed Elneny will not be available having just finished Africa Cup of Nations international duty with Egypt on Sunday, while Takehiro Tomiyasu is still involved in the Asian Cup with Japan.
The Africa Cup of Nations has affected Forest hard with Ibrahim Sangare, Willy Boly, Serge Aurier (all Ivory Coast), Moussa Niakhate, Cheikhou Kouyate (both Senegal) and Olu Aina (Nigeria) all still at the tournament, while Nuno Tavares is unable to play against his parent club.
Morgan Gibbs-White gave Forest fans a scare when he missed the Blackpool game with an abdominal injury but it is hoped he will recover in time, and the same for Anthony Elanga who sat out the tie with a thigh problem.
Last season’s matchwinner Taiwo Awoniyi has been out since November with a groin injury but is back in training, however Divock Origi has been missing since Boxing Day while defender Felipe could be in the squad.
Talking tactics
Adrian Clarke: New head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has surprised plenty of observers from a tactical perspective, by adopting a far more positive and adventurous approach than we saw from him at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur.
His teams will always work hard out of possession and press with hostility, but it appears he is willing to let Nottingham Forest’s players perform is a slightly less structured manner than expected.
This freedom has led to some exciting contests. Nottingham Forest have scored 14 goals and conceded 12 in his seven matches in charge so far.
Nuno has started every match until this point in a 4-2-3-1, where he seems determined to get attacking midfielders Anthony Elanga, Morgan Gibbs-White, Callum Hudson-Odoi or Nicolas Dominguez onto the ball more often than they did under predecessor Steve Cooper.
Their combined pace and guile from fast breakaways must be watched closely at the City Ground, as it played a big part in their recent victories against Newcastle United and Manchester United.
In fact, no team has registered more counter attack goals (7) than Nottingham Forest so far in 2023-24.
One of our best strengths, set pieces, may cause the hosts a sleepless night ahead of this encounter though.
Displaying fragility defending corners and wide free kicks all season, they have leaked a league-high 11 goals from dead ball situations.
On our last two visits to the City Ground we have encountered a very well organised, super-defensive Forest side that relinquished possession. This time around we are still likely to enjoy the lion’s share of the ball, but there will be less emphasis of putting 11 men behind the ball.
They will try to build attacks when possible, but without the ball Forest will hassle and harry our players inside the middle third, before springing quick transitions.
In-form Chris Wood is the danger man. The tall New Zealander is not just excellent at attacking crosses in the air. In recent weeks he has been a real threat from turnover situations too, running onto balls played in behind. He is a striker that will need to be shackled closely on the night.
Facts and stats
Since their return to the Premier League last season, Forest have dropped 46 points from winning positions, at least 11 more than any other side.
No team have kept more Premier League clean sheets than ourselves this season (8). However, we are looking to record a shutout in consecutive league games for just the second time this campaign.
We are winless in our last three away league games - we've not had a longer run under Mikel Arteta since his first six such games in charge between December 2019 and June 2020.
We have scored the most goals from set-piece situations in the division (13, excluding penalties), the most from corners (10) and the most headed goals (10). Meanwhile, Forest have conceded the most from set pieces (11), and only Brentford (11) have conceded more from headers (9).
Nuno Espirito Santo’s four league games in charge of Forest have produced a total of 17 goals, an average of 4.3 per game. This is almost two goals per game more than his spells in the competition with Wolves (2.4) and Tottenham Hotspur (2.5).
Chris Wood has been involved in six goals in his last four Premier League appearances (5 goals, 1 assist), as many as in his previous 45 combined. Wood is averaging a league goal every 72 minutes under Nuno, converting 50 per cent of his shots.
Match officials
Simon Hooper will oversee his first encounter with us since our League Cup exit to West Ham United in November. That was our first defeat on his watch, having remained unbeaten in the four previous matches he had refereed.
The Reds have all three Premier League matches he was appointed to last season, including our 5-0 win against them at Emirates Stadium. In his 18 matches this campaign, Hooper has brandished 4.7 yellow cards per game, but has yet to award a penalty.
Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistants: Adrian Holmes, Simon Long
Fourth official: Graham Scott
VAR: Jarred Gillett
Assistant VAR: Richard West
Previous visits to the City Ground
Trips to the banks of the Trent haven’t dredged up many positive results for us in recent years, and thus Forest head into this game looking to win a fourth-straight home game against us for the first time in their history.
Last season saw us fall to a 1-0 loss back in May when Awoniyi netted the only goal to all-but end our title challenge, and the season before brought about the same scoreline in the FA Cup third round when Lewis Grabban got the only goal.
The same fate befell us in 2018 when a 4-2 defeat at the same stage of the competition ended our interest, but we did manage to record a victory back in September 2016 in the League Cup, when a brace from Lucas Perez plus strikes from Granit Xhaka and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain claimed a 4-0 win.
Take a look back at our last league win in 1999, plus other memorable meetings by revisiting some classics at the City Ground.
Breakdown Live
Tune into our matchday show an hour before kick-off on Arsenal.com and the official app for all the best build-up any Gooner could possibly want!
Nick Bright and Adrian Clarke are in the My Arsenal Rewards box and we’ll look back on our comprehensive victory over Crystal Palace last time out. Adrian brings you his round-up of our academy and women’s sides and there will be a reminder of how we got on against on Forest on the opening day.
We’ll also hear from the boss in his pre-match press conference before handing over to Dan Roebuck and Nik Brumsack who are at the City Ground with live commentary.
You can also find out which broadcaster is showing the action live wherever you are in the world
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