Call me a pessimist but I’m always fearful of runs of fixtures with games every three days. Forest on Sunday, Bayern on Wednesday, Everton on Saturday and then Fleetwood on Tuesday means it’s a non-stop churn of game, recovery, train pre-match. And of course it’s a privilege to compete in three competitions but with three away games in ten days, there’s a banana skin in there along the way. I felt the same when we had four away games on the bounce in September – then it was Napoli, Sunderland, Ipswich and Brighton and it felt nigh on impossible to win all four. With this run on the horizon, I would again take three wins from four, especially if the slip-up happens at Bayern in the fairly long-winded but meaningless Champions League group stage.
Anyway, that’s enough negative chat. We’ve won two in a row since the international break with wins over Leeds and Lille to regain our momentum after the Brighton blip. I was fortunate to be at the Lille game on Tuesday – my first since the Como friendly and that flurry of three goals in seven second-half minutes was a joy to behold. A dominant period before the first goal finally resulted in the opening goal and having spent so much time defending and chasing our players, Lille simply could not cope with the fresh injection of energy from the bench in the form of Saka, Odegaard and Havertz. A goal and two assists from the trio quickly followed in what was a fairly routine evening all round. The game reminded me a bit of the Atletico Madrid group game last season where we finally broke their resistance around the hour mark and then scored three more in the next 11 minutes. And it was nice to see Olivier Giroud generally get a good reception as he remains an ex-Gunner I am particularly fond of.
Given the ongoing Manchester City situation, it is hard to think too much about a title race at this stage. Our job is to keep winning as many games as possible and come the new year, where there may be more clarity, we can see where we’re at. City in theory remain our main challengers, but I can see Chelsea going on a good run with Caicedo’s recent return providing them with defensive stability to accompany the Blues’ undoubted flair. Chelsea remain a team to watch in my opinion and they were very impressive in victory at an obdurate Everton. I view Forest as a work in progress under new manager Oliver Glasner. They only have one win on the board in six league games, have only outscored Spurs and have talisman Morgan Gibbs-White as a doubt coming into this fixture. Given that we were able to make changes against Lille and have had a five day gap between that game and this, there is no excuse for not winning this game. Of course, every Premier League away game presents its challenges but we’re too good to not be taking three points from the City Ground, even if we have only done so once since their 2022 promotion.
Team selection wise, there shouldn’t be too many surprises. In defence, Raya, Konsa, Gabriel and Calafiori should be shoo-ins, with Timber or White being a 50-50 call at right-back. Timber is first-choice and will be feeling good off the back of scoring on Tuesday, but perhaps Arteta saves him for Bayern and retains White in the league. I think that one could go either way but hope to see Timber start personally. I am inclined to think that Lewis-Skelly misses out of the starting XI this time around. He played in all four of England’s Nations League games, starting three and has started both games for us since the international break too. At 20, a breather here makes sense but again it depends on Arteta’s plans for Bayern. I would just give favouritism to Bruno and Rice here with Tuesday’s super subs Saka, Odegaard and Havertz all returning. And will it be Eze or Madueke on the left? Personally, I would prefer to use Eze’s creativity here against a deeper defensive line and save Madueke’s speed for potential counter-attacks on Wednesday. Whether Arteta sees it the same way remains to be seen and even so, I’m not too fussed either way.
Regarding a score prediction, I see this as being a tight game. Forest will look to deny space and particularly if Gibbs-White is absent/not fully fit, this feels like a potential clean sheet game. I will go for a cautious 1-0 win to us, with Gabriel getting the winner from a Rice corner. We’ve lacked goals from set-pieces so far and it just feels like one of those scruffy away games that we need a bit of magic from the training ground to unlock the door. COYG
Featured Image Credit: NottinghamNinja, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
