Nottingham Forest meet Arsenal in a huge top-of-the-table clash at the City Ground.
Victory or a draw will see Forest stay third in the table, whilst Arsenal could cut their title deficit to eight points if Liverpool lose elsewhere.
Team News
Forest have no fresh injury concerns following a dramatic 4-3 loss at Newcastle, with only Miguel Pereira (hamstring) still ruled out.
Arsenal will be without Myles Lewis-Skelly after the youngster’s red card in their loss at home to West Ham.
Ethan Nwaneri (fatigue) is set to be available for selection.
Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka (all hamstring), Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu (both knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest face Arsenal at the City Ground on Wednesday 26 February at 7:30pm GMT, live on TNT Sports 1 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Forest have won one of their last five league meetings against Arsenal (W1, L4).
- Arsenal have won three of their last five league trips to Forest (W3, L2).
- Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi has scored in two of his last three appearances against Arsenal.
- Chris Wood has scored four goals in Forest’s last two matches at home (W2), during which the Tricky Trees scored ten goals and conceded twice.
- No Arsenal player has played more top-flight minutes this season than goalkeeper, David Raya who has played 2,340 minutes in 26 league appearances.
Prediction
With the top-four race incredibly tight, Forest know that their fate is in their own hands sat third in the table but they must play with the intensity that they produced in the second-half of their defeat at Newcastle, which was much better than the first half where they were outplayed after an early clinical opening goal.
Arsenal meanwhile lacked much quality end product in their loss at home to West Ham despite a strong defensive effort aside from poor marking of Jarrod Bowen’s winner, but they really need to bounce back quickly and ideally avoid suffering league defeats for rest of season if want any chance of the title now.
Nevertheless this game will certainly be scrappy because Forest certainly look comfortable at home and have the end product form but Arsenal will have the extra freshness, which should make for a good battle that I feel that the hosts could edge if they are consistent in their performance than saw on Tyneside.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 2-1 Arsenal
Result: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal
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