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Today’s match officials
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Referee: Michael Oliver.
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Assistants: Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring.
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Fourth official: Tom Kirk.
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VAR: Darren England.
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Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.
Mikel Arteta: “We are building very good momentum,” the Arsenal head coach said of his team yesterday. “And the belief comes from performances and the level of consistency we have shown already this season. What we did at Stamford Bridge [won 3-2 in the Carabao Cup semi-final first legmidweek] should help us to be very convinced that we have the ability.”
Sean Dyche: “We spoke to the players about it and what we expected,” said the Forest gaffer of last week’s FA Cup exit at Wrexham. “It was a professional reaction, as it should be. A few felt they weren’t near where they needed to be and I think the whole collective. It was only the first half [that was not up to standard] and I made it clear. I expect more from the players, as do they, and they made that clear in feeding that back.”
Bukayo Saka on the bench for Arsenal
Those teams: Having stressed the need to protect Bukayo Saka “to get the best out of him”, Mikel Arteta leaves his winger on the bench today, giving Noni Madueke a start in the winger’s place. On the other flank, Gabriel Martinelli comes in for Leandro Trossard. David Raya starts in goal, with Kepa returning to the bench after getting a rare outing in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea.
Sean Dyche makes nine changes to the Forest side that lost at Wrexham last weekend, with Matz Sels and Igor Jesus the only survivors. Ibrahim Sangare is back in midfield after returning from Afcon but there’s no place in the Forest matchday squad for his Cote d’Ivoire teammate Willy Boly.
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal line-ups
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Sangare, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus.
Subs: Gunn, Morato, Awoniyi, Douglas Luiz, Ndoye, Hutchinson, Yates, McAtee, Savona.
Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice, Madueke, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Eze, Trossard, Merino, Havertz, Lewis-Skelly.
Early team news
Arsenal are without Riccardo Calafiori, Christhian Mosquero, Piero Hincapie and Max Dowman, who are all injured. Speaking at his press conference yesterday, Mikel Arteta suggested it will be a few weeks before any of the quartet are available for selection.
For Forest, Oleksandr Zinchenko is ineligible to face his parent club but would have been unlikely to be considered anyway after flunking a rare audition for the first team during their FA Cup exit. Forest are open to ending the Ukrainian’s season-long loan deal this month on the back of his failure to make much of an impression at the City Ground. “We’ve spoken to the player and made it clear on his situation,” said Sean Dyche yesterday. “He’s aware of that so we’ll see what happens.”
In other Forest availability (or lack thereof) news, Chris Wood remains sidelined with a knee injury and goalkeeper John Victor is also out. Ryan Yates could feature after recovering from a twanged hamstring, while Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangare are available after returning from Afcon. The duo represented Cote d’Ivoire, who were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Egypt.
Premier League: Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Having won five away games on the spin, the league leaders travel to the City Ground as white-hot favourites to beat a Nottingham Forest side who ended a run of four straight league defeats with a win at West Ham before returning to losing ways by getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Wrexham. Six points clear at the top of the table, Mikel Arteta’s side will take to the field with a spring in the collective step, having seen their main title rivals Manchester City get humiliated at Old Trafford earlier today.
While they look to have enough about them to avoid relegation, Forest’s Premier League status is far from safe, but in defeat against City in late December they showed themselves capable of giving the Premier League’s elite a decent game. Whether they can take something against an Arsenal side who have won nine and drawn one of their last 10 games in all competitions remains to be seen. Kick-off is at in Nottingham is at 5.30pm but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
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