Arsenal Analysed: 5 reasons for our Forest success

Saturday saw us returning to the winner's enclosure in style as we put in a dominant performance to beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 at Emirates Stadium.

But what were the key reasons for our superb display? To find out, Adrian Clarke has poured through the footage and sifted through the stats to discover what we did well:

ODEGAARD ELEVATES

This was Martin Odegaard's first start at Emirates Stadium since August, and our effervescent No.8 made up for lost time with a scintillating individual performance. The beating heart of the side right from kick-off, our skipper's brightness knitted the midfield and attack together in a beautiful way that saw us create countless triangles inside the final third.

His combination play with Bukayo Saka was a particular joy to watch, as the pair led Nottingham Forest a merry dance down the right side with their one and two-touch passing. Sharing 36 passes in total, their sharp give-and-gos created serious headaches for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men:

Odegaard to Saka (18 passes):

Saka to Odegaard (18 passes):

He didn’t score but Odegaard’s bubbly tempo and skill on the ball reminded us of what we missed during his recent injury lay-off. Creating a game-high six chances, and an assist for Saka’s opener, the Norwegian had a huge impact on the quality of this entertaining team display. Considering he needs a little more match sharpness to reach peak condition, his matchday numbers were outstanding:

A TEAM EFFORT

Despite being unbeaten away from home before Saturday, Forest failed to have a single shot on target in a Premier League match for the first time since April 2023, and our shutout victory was earned through great industry out of possession, as much as it was through our superiority on the ball.

Playing with a spring in our step, moving around to support each other and working tirelessly to pressurise the visitors, Mikel Arteta’s men ran 7.95km further than our opponents on Saturday. That is an extraordinary difference with the Gunners also making an extra 314 intensive runs during the 100 minutes played, with Mikel Merino topping the rankings for distance covered (11.7km) and intensive runs (329).

Our tackling was also especially impressive. Timing our challenges expertly, we won 87% of our tackles (13/15) and the locations of those regains are shown below:

Partey's perfect 45

After Jorginho picked up a hard yellow card, Thomas Partey replaced him at half-time and promptly delivered a masterclass in central midfield play, scoring within seven minutes of entering the fray. Four of his seven Premier League goals have now come from outside the box, and of all Arsenal players to have scored five or more goals in the competition, he’s the only one to have netted more than half from beyond 18 yards.

The astute movement of Odegaard should also be applauded as his forward run deliberately opened up a gap that allowed Partey to set himself before firing his effort on goal:

Aside from scoring, Partey completed 33 of 34 attempted passes and won all four of his tackles. It was also interesting to see him operate deeper than Jorginho had in a one-sided first half. Content to drop back and get onto the ball inside his own half, Partey drew Forest onto him, opening up extra space for our attacking midfielders.

Jorginho's passes (first half) 

Partey's passes (second half) 

Saka’s stormer

Forest left-back Alex Moreno will be glad to see the back of Saka until the return clash. Our brilliant right winger was electric during a stellar first half that saw him enjoy 10 touches inside the box, make three key passes, and fire off four shots including a top-class goal.

The power he generated for his 15th-minute strike was remarkable. Dribbling across goal Saka somehow angled his left foot shot across the keeper, beating him for pace in spectacular fashion.

It was clear from the get-go that our players wanted to feed Saka as often as possible. With Jurrien Timber resisting the temptation to overlap every time, our Hale End graduate revelled in the number of 1v1s he had against Moreno, and this attacking thirds graphic provides a clear indication of how right-sided we were against Forest:

Nwaneri off the mark

At 17 years and 247 days, Ethan Nwaneri became Arsenal’s second youngest-ever Premier League goalscorer behind Cesc Fabregas, and the teenager's second-half cameo was magical.

After beating Murillo all ends up with a silky stepover and shot, Nwaneri then despatched Raheem Sterling’s terrific cutback with power and precision. When you also consider his three Carabao Cup goals so far this term, our gifted youngster has now scored at a rate of one goal every 59.5 minutes in all competitions this season:

Having proved he can find the net regardless of the competition, it seems plenty more game time is sure to follow for this prodigious teenage talent.