Seen a lot of Arsenal fans on my timeline this morning talk about how worried they are about today’s game. I get it. I mean, we have a pretty poor record at The City Ground; Oliver Glasner is a very good manager, plus they’ve been massively underperforming their statistical metrics on things like xG, so it feels like something’s gotta give. But I am minded to be more positive this morning. Perhaps I’m still a bit drunk from the skinful I had last night.

We’re a good team. We’re the champions. We have managed to rotate a few players from midweek, and hopefully that means we’re a little fresher. Arteta has had Thursday, Friday, and yesterday to get the boys in training, get them drilled on how the game plays out, so there can be no excuses from The Arsenal today. After City got their expected win at home to Ipswich, we have to respond.

It’ll be tough, though. It always is away at Forest. I went to the FA Cup game a few years back when Djed Spence had a blinder, and we had Nuno Tavares hooked after just half an hour as we were dumped out at the third round stage. It was a long journey home in the car with my mate Dave Seager that day, and we haven’t exactly had easy ones coming home since then either. Even the one win we did get a few years back was a tight 2-1; for some reason Forest always seem to make it really difficult on our own patch. Certainly compared to when I’ve seen other teams go there.

So I’d love us to start fast today. It’s felt like first halves have been a bit stodgy this season, which has been frustrating, but a fluid and high-tempo-driven first half would be super today. Let’s pop the ball around like champions. Let’s show the world watching on the main event Sunday kick-off time that we are in this fight with City for the long haul. Let’s respond with our own answer to the victory from Cheaters FC by going away to a tough place and returning home with three points tucked under our wing.

In terms of the team I think Arteta will go with, I think we’ll see:

Raya

White – Konsa – Gabriel – Calafiori

Bruno

Odegaard – Rice

Saha – Havertz – Madueke

It’s not what I’d go with, but I just think Arteta will want the pace and trickery of Madueke over Eze. The one thing that could see Eze start instead would be the second half against Lille. He was great in that second half, got a goal, should/could have had another one, and when Saka and Havertz came on, it felt like it clicked more there. So Arteta could take the view that with those two players on from the start, there might be better relationships with Eze and we might be able to bring the best out of him. I’d certainly go for that instead of Madueke, but I think Arteta has been talking up Noni quite a lot in the last week, so I have a feeling he might start on the left.

In terms of the rest of the team, I think sharing the minutes between White and Timber makes sense, whilst Bruno has started to establish himself as ‘the guy’ in midfield, so as good as Myles has been, I think this is the sort of match in which Bruno should hopefully thrive. Forest will sit in a mid-block and having that verticality of passing would be very handy, so I’d have Bruno rather than the ball-carrying skills of Lewis-Skelly.

Forest have a question mark over Morgan Gibbs-White, which would be a touch for us if he doesn’t make the team, but I think there were rumours that he was doing a training session yesterday, so I suspect he will play today. He’s their best player, one from whom a lot of their good work flows through, so if he’s fit, he plays. And that will be a threat for us. He’s got a goal and two assists this season off an xG of 1.67 (only Dan Ndoye has more) and an xA of 1.87. He’s the one that a lot of their creative play flows through, so if we keep him quiet, you’d hope that we might be able to get the points today.

We need to see more from our attackers though. Saka and Havertz came on and looked great against Lille I thought, so I want a repeat of that this afternoon. I also want Odegaard central to our attacking play too, because if he’s visible, if we’re finding him, then we’re on top and stand a better chance of winning the game. Let’s hope he continues the good form he had when he kicked off this season, because it feels like he’s been a little quieter in the last couple of games. But today could be a good opportunity to stamp his mark and I’m hoping we see an Odegaard masterclass today.

We’ll be going live after the game today with the Same Old Arsenal podcast, so if you fancy an immediate post-match debrief, check it out here.

Otherwise, I’ll be back on here tomorrow to look over the key parts of the games with you. Have a good one. Up the Arsenal.