Having just won a strong 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace, Arsenal is expected to continue to defeat Nottingham Forest, thereby putting pressure on the team ranked above Man City.
FORCE
– NOTTINGHAM: Missing Taiwo Awoniyi, Felipe (injured), Nuno Tavares, Ola Aina, Moussa Niakhate, Ibrahim Sangare, Serge Aurier, Willy-Arnaud Boly and Cheikhou Kouyate. Anthony Elanga and Divock Origi’s ability to play is still open.
– ARSENAL: Missing Jurrien Timber, Fabio Viera (injured), Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny. The ability of Gabriel Magalhaes, Declan Rice and Thomas Partey to play is still open.
FORM AND CONFRONTATION
– Nottingham has won 3/7 recent matches in all competitions (won 3, drew 2, lost 2).
– Arsenal has won 2/7 recent matches in all competitions (won 2, drew 2, lost 3).
– Nottingham has won against Arsenal in 3/10 recent confrontations (won 3, drew 0, lost 7).
In the earliest match of round 22 of the Premier League, Arsenal will be away at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground. With rising spirit after a crisp 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace, coach Mikel Arteta and his team are expected to continue to win 3 points in this match.
In fact, Arsenal has not shown very good performance in recent times. Because the victory over Crystal Palace was only their second victory in the last 7 matches in all competitions. In the remaining 5 matches, the Gunners drew 2 and lost 2.
The striker’s lack of luck is one of the reasons leading to Arsenal’s disappointing results. This season, The Gunners, although solid in defense, appear to lack sharpness in attack. This limitation of Arsenal was clearly shown in the 0-2 loss to Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup.
In this match, Arsenal played at home and completely dominated the match. The Gunners held the ball 54% of the time, received 5 corner kicks, created 5 clear opportunities and finished 18 times, but could not penetrate Liverpool’s goal. In the end, they were hit by two “recovery attacks” from the Red Brigade and suffered defeat with a score of 0-2. Not only were they eliminated in the cup competition, Arsenal also dropped in the Premier League rankings. Before round 21, The Gunners had dropped to 4th place after 2 consecutive losses against West Ham and Fulham.
However, joy returned to the Emirates after Arsenal’s 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the previous round. In this match, the Gunners’ powerful weapon, set-piece situations, returned when Gabriel Magalhaes scored a double from two teammates’ corner kicks. Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard also scored 2 and 1 goal respectively. And Bukayo Saka, who has received a lot of criticism, also contributed an assist.
With excited spirit, Arsenal is ready to enter the confrontation with Nottingham. If they leave the City Ground with 3 points, the Gunners will temporarily advance and put pressure on Man City, the team with the same score but ranked above them because of the secondary index (43 points).
Even if Liverpool cannot beat Chelsea in this round, Arsenal will narrow the gap with The Kops to at least 2 points. That will be a milestone for The Gunners’ return to the championship race after the recent series of poor matches.
In terms of strength, Arsenal only lacks players who are not too important: Jurrien Timber, Fabio Viera (injured), Takehiro Tomiyasu (attending Asian Cup) and Mohamed Elneny (attending AFCON). As for the rest, Mikel Arteta will still have the strongest squad.
Contrary to Arsenal, Nottingham Forest was missing 6 players in this match due to AFCON 2023. Not to mention, coach Nuno Espirito Santo also lost 2 more players due to injury, and could not use Nuno Tavares because he was loaned from the Gunners. In addition, The Tricky’s player who is playing very well this season, Anthony Elanga, is also leaving the possibility of playing.
In terms of performance, Nottingham is not playing badly since the day Nuno Santo took over. After 7 matches in all competitions, the Portuguese coach helped the club win 3, draw 2 and suffer 2 defeats. The most impressive was probably the 3-1 victory over Newcastle in round 19 of the EPL, a match in which Chris Wood scored a hat-trick. The New Zealand striker has played well since being coached by Nuno Santos with 6 goals and 1 assist.
Nottingham Forest only won against Arsenal in 3/10 recent encounters. But what is worth noting is that these 3 victories took place alternately in the last 6 meetings of the two clubs. That shows that The Tricky is no longer inferior to The Gunners in recent times. In round 37 of last season, Arsenal lost 0-1 to Nottingham at the City Ground, thereby officially being defeated by Man City in the Premier League championship race.