After winning the Community Shield, Arsenal will play host to Nottingham on the opening day of the Premier League season. With their Community Shield victory over Manchester City last weekend, the Gunners broke their curse, and they’re now seeking some form of retribution from the team who put an end to their title hopes the year before.
Preview (Arsenal vs Nottingham)
In the Community Shield match against Manchester City last weekend, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal were taught the hard way about the new rules surrounding gamesmanship and time-wasting. Manchester City survived the pressure from the Gunners before moving into the lead thanks to a great Cole Palmer effort. Leandro Trossard’s deflected attempt in the eleventh minute of second-half injury time. It was a second consecutive victory for the Gunners in the penalty shootout. Arsenal had also retained their Emirates Cup title by defeating Monaco from 12 yards. The North London giants quickly became the beneficiaries of the newly introduced regulations.
The Forest team recruited 25 new players during the 2022–23 season. Some of them had a greater impact than others. An immediate drop to the Championship was unthinkable. Cooper also shrugged off a brief rumor of his dismissal. He leads the Tricky Trees to their second straight season in the Premier League. Since then, Forest has tested their mettle against a number of European rivals in the run-up. However, only two of Forest’s seven preseason games ended with Cooper’s team coming out on top. They failed to win or score in each of their final four exhibition games.
Forest left Eintracht Frankfurt’s headquarters with a decent 0-0 tie to their record after three straight defeats to Leeds United, PSV Eindhoven, and Rennes. However, scoring just three goals in their seven preseason games should raise some red flags. Additionally, no team in the 2022–23 Premier League performed worse on the road than Forest. Cooper’s team managed just eight points away from home. It has also been 34 years since the Tricky Trees last defeated Arsenal at home. A 3–1 victory at Highbury in the 1988–89 First Division. Though the Gunners famously went on to win the league that season.
Team News
Gabriel Jesus will need to recover from a knee operation for the next several weeks, and Mohamed Elneny, who hasn’t played since January, hasn’t yet returned from his own procedure in the same area, so the Arsenal medical staff is already working overtime in preparation for the start of the new season. Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf) made a brief appearance in the Game4Ukraine before missing the Community Shield along with Reiss Nelson (toe), Albert Sambi Lokonga (muscle), Jorginho (muscle), and Folarin Balogun (foot). It is still unknown if any of the quintet will be given the go-ahead to play this weekend. However, Jurrien Timber performed admirably in the Community Shield at left-back.
Regarding their opponents, there is hope that Awoniyi, who suffered an ankle injury in the most recent loss to Leeds, will be able to play from the start at the Emirates. Brennan Johnson, meanwhile, made his comeback off the bench in the draw with Frankfurt but may not yet be given a starting position. As he recovers from a knee issue, Felipe might also be given consideration for bench duty, although Moussa Niakhate (shoulder), Wayne Hennessey (knee), and Omar Richards (groin) are all expected to remain sidelined.
Arsenal 2 – 0 Nottingham
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