Arsenal travel to the Midlands to take on Nottingham Forest today. All eyes are on the top of the Premier League table, where Manchester City have maintained their perfect start to the season. Arsenal trail them by three points. But the entire thing feels a bit pointless and farcical with City starting down sanctions for their conviction on 114 counts of rulebreaking. The Premier League have to respect their own rules and timings (to keep Manchester City’s army of lawyers at bay), but the longer things drag on, the worse it looks and feels for the league overall.
Forest, on the other hand, are down the bottom of the table. The Trees are off to a slow start under new manager Oliver Glasner, winning just 5 points from their opening 6 matches (1-2-3 record). They’ve scored 5 and conceded 8, obviously that’s not enough scoring, but the goals against tally ranks them tied-7th. They’ll be a tough out, particularly at home against an Arsenal side that, at times, has not been free-flowing in attack.
Arsenal will be without Piero Hincapie for a couple of weeks after the fullback picked up an injury in the warm-down last weekend. Martin Zubimendi, who also got a minor knock in that session, could be available today. Christos Tzolis is out for another week or two. William Saliba is working back from his long-term absence and targeting a November return to action.
The big injury question mark this weekend for Nottingham Forest is Morgan Gibbs-White. The star midfielder picked up a minor muscle injury against Crystal Palace last weekend that has kept him out of training for most of the week. He was only able to participate in one training session this week, and Oliver Glasner said he was doubtful to be able to play. Defender Nicola Savona will miss the match, as will striker Igor Jesus. Centerback Nikola Milenkovic returned to training on Friday after a long layoff. Glasner said he might be in the matchday squad but expressed caution because the Serbian had been out for several weeks and is almost certainly not ready for a full minutes load.
WHO: Arsenal at Nottingham Forest
WHAT: Premier League MD7
WHERE: The City Ground, Nottingham
WHEN: Sunday, October 18th, 8:30 am PT | 11:30 am ET | 4:30 pm GMT
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on Peacock
For all your international streaming needs, check LiveSoccerTV.com. Please do not share or discuss links to illegal streams here.