Morning folks, hope we’re all good and looking for to the re-commencement of the proper stuff tomorrow. We had some lovely videos and pictures of the players in training and as usual, as we all did our zooming in to see if there were any players not in the pictures or videos. It looks like a pretty clean bill of health other than the players that we know are already out – Kai, Bukayo and Big Bill. I think there were some nervous people about Calafiori given he didn’t play against Israel, but he’s there in his training stuff and featured in the pictures, so that’s all good. It was also good to see Ben White out there too, which means we’ve got a pretty strong defensive set of solutions to choose from tomorrow.

It’s Forest at The Emirates, it’s Arteta’s press conference this afternoon and yesterday we heard from ‘Big Ange’ talking at his press conference ahead of the game. He once again talked about winning trophies his whole career and to be fair, he’s shown that he can do that, but this will be one heck of a challenge to deliver for Forest, with that challenge starting against us. As you’d expect his press conference didn’t really feel as much about the game tomorrow and more about what he’s going to do to Forest with his stylistic changes, but he did admit that it was only yesterday that he had his full squad together. They’ll most likely be travelling today so I suspect what we will see tomorrow is still a defensively structured team set up to contain, although he did repeatedly say he would attack, so maybe we’ll see some of that tomorrow?

As for Forest fans, well, as I do like to do I decided to go behind enemy lines and have a look at how they’re feeling ahead of this one. I found a decent site that had a poll on how they think the game will go and you’ve got just over a third thinking they’ll lose, a quarter thinking they’ll win and just under a third thinking that it will be a draw. So that’s a bit of a mixed bag. I guess they are as unsure what to make of Postecoglou and the way they will set up as we are. One fan suggested that if Madueke plays like he did against Andorra they’ll win, but that thread obviously aged like milk after what he did in Serbia, so that’s good to know. As for how they’re feeling about Age, well, it was hardly universal appreciation that’s for sure. Most of them – before the announcement – were advocating Pochettino, with comments like “it’s going to be that fraud Postecoglou, isn’t it?” or “If it was to be big Ange, sacking a manager who took you from 17th to 7th and hiring one who took a team from 5th to 17th, we’d be a f***ing meme.” – so I’m guessing some of those people from earlier in the week aren’t too happy right now!

I get it though; they’ve gone for a diametrically opposed manager, one who may have won something, but who did so with one heck of a fortunate set of teams on his way to winning that Europa League, whilst the Forest fans will have watched and laughed – like we did – as the Scum spiralled down the table with suicide football at times. All the while they were seeing Nuno deliver result after result which had them chasing Champions League spots for a big part of the season. So I can understand why some of them are a little miffed at what they might perceive as a downgrade.

The pundits are on our side too, with Jones Knows saying there will be some cards and a 3-1 for The Arsenal. Merse has gone for a 2-0 Arsenal and the most cantankerous man in sports broadcasting Chris Sutton has gone for a 2-0 win for us, saying that he doesn’t expect a big change and that Arsenal will probably need to grind out a result. It’s hard to disagree with that; Nuno’s Forest were built on defensive solidity and not the most expansive football and dropping in to a low block will not be a problem for those players at all. Then, with their rapid forward line they can counter at pace and that’ll be something we’ll need to be mindful of in transition, because there will be traps they’d like to spring on us I suspect. I’ll do a little more on the game and how it might play out tomorrow I think.

With that in mind, Sports Mole is usually the place that I often think is the most realistic – and detailed – in their previews and I tend to think that the way they’ve set it out is probably the most accurate as to how the game might go. They’ve said a 2-1 win to us, citing our lack of xG so far this season, which I think is a little bit of a misnomer. We’ve gone to Old Trafford before they’ve had the chance to look a little stodgy and with the home fans full of voice and hope. I’m convinced that if we were going there in a few weeks time the game would be very different. We’ve smashed a Leeds team who were newly promoted and who barely laid a glove on us, then we’ve gone to Anfield in which Liverpool created less xG than we did. So I think there’s some context to be had here. Having said that, if we’re getting Nuno’s Forest rock up tomorrow, they will be compact and make it difficult for us to create chances, so a narrow xG game and also hopefully an Arsenal win albeit by a narrow one, feels like it’s most likely to be on the cards for me.

The big decisions will be coming tomorrow morning as Arteta decides who is going to start and thankfully, unlike last season, the manager has a ton of different options and playing styles to pick from. More on that tomorrow after he’s said his piece in today’s press conference.

And I’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts on what I would do if I was Arteta too. So I’ll catch you then.