Nottingham Forest face a difficult Premier League test against title-chasing Arsenal.
Victory would see Forest climb as high as 11th if results in the mid-afternoon kick-offs go in their favour.
Should Brighton defeat Crystal Palace in the mid-afternoon action to leapfrog the Gunners into second, Arsenal can return to second with a win and sit three points off leaders, Manchester City.
Team News
Morgan Gibbs-White is a doubt for Nottingham Forest due to a muscle injury.
Nikola Milenkovic (hamstring) could return but Igor Jesus (calf) and Nicolo Savona (knee) remain absent.
Arsenal could welcome midfielder, Martin Zubimendi back into contention after he missed their 3-0 Champions League win over Lille on Tuesday evening, due to an ankle injury suffered during a warm-down exercise after their 2-1 Premier League win over Leeds.
Piero Hincapie (ankle), Christos Tzolis (hamstring) and William Saliba (back) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest host Arsenal at the City Ground on Sunday 18 October at 4:30pm BST, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Forest have failed to win any of their last six meetings against Arsenal (D2, L4).
- Arsenal are unbeaten in seven of their last nine league visits to Forest (W4, D3, L2).
- Neco Williams has won more duels than any other Forest player this season (32).
- No Arsenal player this season has completed more successful long passes than David Raya (40).
Prediction
Having thrown away an early lead in their 3-1 loss at Crystal Palace, Forest have to be much tighter defensively but equally clinical because this isn’t an easy game given their poor form against Arsenal, otherwise this could be a long teatime for them.
Arsenal meanwhile absolutely demolished Lille with a dominant display in which they received no shots on target from the French club, yet they only had a clinical seven-minute spell in the second half for all of their dominance which shows how hard they grafted for the result.
Now if they bring the same intensity and quality then I frankly think that this is going to be a case of damage control for Forest, as this does feel like Arsenal’s to lose.
Prediction: Forest 0-2 Arsenal
Result: Forest 0-1 Arsenal
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