Win Premier League: Arsenal 2 - 1 Nottingham Forest | Saturday 12th August | KO: 13:00 BST | TNT Sports

Football is back, baby!!!

Likely starting XI

Prediction
Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

 

[Riou]

That felt like a very unsatisfying win from the Emery era.

Winning ugly can be a great thing to have though, all the quality sides do it.

Don't forget, despite our flying start last season...we won 2 of our first 3 home games 2-1 too through missing chances and digging deep, it will serve us well dealing with these bits of pressure and coming through them.

 

[Gooner Zig]

This why I hate xG merchants, remember when Potter brought out the ol xG despite losing like 3 games on the trot at Chelsea

 

[2Smokeyy]

I don't think anyone said the performance as a whole was excellent. We can have some nuance. It can be true that he didn't have the best time in attack but was very good in our press as well as taking up some good positions to free up space for others. He's meant to be replacing Xhaka. He's doing the defensive side that people were worried about well. Now he needs to find his comfort level within a system that is far more intricate than anything else he's played in. Surely he can be given more than one game where the entire team was underwhelming for an entire half before being written off. That's all I'm saying. It doesn't have to be oh he's sh*t or oh he's the 2nd coming. Just be fair.

Havertz who was excellent today? Scapegoats gonna scape.

Huh?

I’m being as fair as they come. Just look at Declan Rice who I was skeptical about initially however I admitted he impressed me, so there are no hidden agenda here at all with Havertz. If he plays well, I’ll praise him but if he has a Casper like performance then I’ll call him out - there are no two ways about it.

My point is for £65m regardless of whether he set the price or not, he’ll be judged like a £65m player. I won’t be just jumping on the Havertz shiny new toy bandwagon for the sake of it.

 

[steppenwolf]

Saliba AND 3 Gabriels every game

 

[Sniper Mik]

Winning ugly can be a great thing to have though, all the quality sides do it.

Don't forget, despite our flying start last season...we won 2 of our first 3 home games 2-1 too through missing chances and digging deep, it will serve us well dealing with these bits of pressure and coming through them.

Of course. But standards and expectations are higher this season

 

[Batman]

Huh?

I’m being as fair as they come. Just look at Declan Rice who I was skeptical about initially however I admitted he impressed me, so there are no hidden agenda here at all with Havertz. If he plays well, I’ll praise him but if he has a Casper like performance then I’ll call him out - there are no two ways about it.

My point is for £65m regardless of whether he set the price or not, he’ll be judged like a £65m player. I won’t be just jumping on the Havertz shiny new toy bandwagon just for the sake of it.

I'm not saying just you individually and admittedly your take is far less histrionic than some. What I'm saying is that even a player who costs you 65m usually gets more than one game that they weren't even bad in before the pitchforks are out. We can agree to disagree though, it's fine.

 

[Riou]

Of course. But standards and expectations are higher this season

Won the first league game in the Invincible season 2-1 at home...

Spoiler: Time for a rerun of that year...

 

[Rattata]

Winning ugly can be a great thing to have though, all the quality sides do it.

Don't forget, despite our flying start last season...we won 2 of our first 3 home games 2-1 too through missing chances and digging deep, it will serve us well dealing with these bits of pressure and coming through them.

We didn't win ugly though. We almost bottled an easy game against a poor Forest side because we aren't ruthless enough. Winning ugly is something we did last season away against Newcastle. This was just a lazy performance from the team and performances like this will get punished like last season.

 

[SA Gunner]

Ps: @SA Gunner did you join me on the Saka 20 PL goal train? I can’t remember. Trains just about to leave…

Saka and Martinelli for me bro. Think our boys become men this season.

Still need to watch the game though, more detailed thoughts to come

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Remembering first matchday last season we also were kinda sloppy against crystal Palace we got lucky few times.

No team is ready from 1st matchday but try get points even in less convincing way it'll prove important later in season

 

[BergMan]

Remembering first matchday last season we also were kinda sloppy against crystal Palace we got lucky few times.

No team is ready from 1st matchday but try get points even in less convincing way it'll prove important later in season

Whilst we had sloppy moments in that game it wasn’t the same. It was a premier league opening fixture at a ground we have had a truly difficult time at as of late, perhaps set up with the knowledge that we would struggle like we did the previous season against Brentford yet we won 2-0 in a combative display. We were very impressive.

This on the other hand we were expected to win comfortably, at home against Forest, a fixture we won 5-0 last season.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Remembering first matchday last season we also were kinda sloppy against crystal Palace we got lucky few times.

No team is ready from 1st matchday but try get points even in less convincing way it'll prove important later in season

We played like a world class team in the first 30 minutes against Palace, made everyone sit up and take notice. Today was a grind from the first whistle. Yes we dominated the ball but created very little.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Whilst we had sloppy moments in that game it wasn’t the same. It was a premier league opening fixture at a ground we have had a truly difficult time at as of late, perhaps set up with the knowledge that we would struggle like we did the previous season against Brentford yet we won 2-0 in a combative display. We were very impressive.

This on the other hand we were expected to win comfortably, at home against Forest, a fixture we won 5-0 last season.

The good thing today we look good when serious its happen alot last season at home against these kind of teams it can't continue like this

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

We played like a world class team in the first 30 minutes against Palace, made everyone sit up and take notice. Today was a grind from the first whistle. Yes we dominated the ball but created very little.

Im pretty sure if we were at home that day we'd make things difficult we always looked better away from home with mikel our home games mostly boring and sloppy it has to change

 

[Buhry]

Imagine spending 200 million to get worse. That second half was abysmal and the first half almost put me to sleep outside of the saka and martinelli moments as well. Dropping one of the best CB's in the league (he was in tandem with saliba) to move white from a position he's excelled in to fit in the German ghost, idk man. I don't like it.
Also Nketiah got a goal somewhat lucky but he really shouldn't start. Arteta found that out last year yet he thinks now will be different.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Im pretty sure if we were at home that day we'd make things difficult we always looked better away from home with mikel our home games mostly boring and sloppy it has to change

It's frustrating. Had we played our regular back four atleast we could have gauged our improvement from last season.

 

[lomekian]

This why I hate xG merchants, remember when Potter brought out the ol xG despite losing like 3 games on the trot at Chelsea

xG ignores all the nearly moments that define a game. Like all analytics it is useful up to a point, but most don't understand where that point is...

 

[albakos]

@Lady_Gooner 1 down, 37 games to go

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

He didn't put a foot wrong today. People just want him to fail so they can say they were right. He and the team will be fine.

The overreaction here is way over top. No time to panic yet.

We are not looking like we are an awful team going into the season but more like a top-quality team that needs to gel together. We will be there.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Of course. But standards and expectations are higher this season

I’d take the same start to the season as last year’s. Gimme that same run that we had to December.