Couldn’t sleep in the early hours of the morning, so decided to get my arse out of bed and do a bit of pre game reading, see what’s out there and whatnot. First things first on days like today I usually go to the traditional ‘pundits previews’. You know, your Merse’s, Sutton’s, Jones Knows on Sky, etc. I don’t know why I do it, because more often than not I don’t agree with them, I find their overviews a little basic, so I end up rolling my eyes with at least one thing the likes of Sutton in particular says. But I guess what it does when you find half a dozen of these predictions is give you a more balanced idea of what a neutral thinks in terms of the forms of both teams. And usually it does tell you what you kind of already know about the game; Chelsea before the international break was all about how it was going to be a tough game and many had it predicted as a draw. Which is duly turned out to be.

For this game Arsenal are the favourites, but it seems quite universal that these pundits are all predicting a tight game, which I think it will be, because Forest are a well-drilled, well-coached side who will look to be compact and give us little by way of space. They’ll sit in a mid-block and they will look to hit us on the counter as I mentioned in yesterday’s musings. They have a couple of players out in Danilo and Sangare and, perhaps unusually, they also have to consider players who went away on international duty too. Murillo was off with Brazil and Gibbs-White with England, so whereas in the past this sort of fixture will have seen Forest with a side who have been rested for a couple of weeks, they have similar challenges to us in terms of managing players coming back from international duty.

The good news from Arteta’s press conference is that we have some players returning and as opposed to what I think most of us would have expected, which was that Arteta would say there are doubts over a wealth of players like Trossard, Calafiori, Saka, Rice, etc, yesterday he seemed quite open. He seemed really buoyant in the press conference and you could tell that there is some relief kicking in after what feels like the whole season so far being without a number of players. It will have felt to him like one problem after another; as soon as one player comes back, another goes and even yesterday’s news wasn’t plain sailing with the news that White will be out and still no Tomiyasu return date (I’ll come back to White in a bit). But for tomorrow there are some good news with the likes of Calafiori for starters. The Italian is back, trained the last week and was with the physio’s last week too so I’d expect he’ll be in on the pitch from the off today. So too, I expect, will Rice and Saka be there, because they are two players that Arteta plays every minute he can. Trossard provides depth from the bench and I think that’s where he’ll be today, because it will surely be a front three of Martinelli (having scored in his last game), Havertz up top and Saka wide right. With Odegaard not playing for Norway you’d expect him to be fit and firing today and as already mentioned Rice’s availability means that Arteta’s main question from midfield will probably be who plays in that third position.

Does he go with Rice further forward and Partey in the six? Does he drop Rice in to the six and play Merino left eight? Regardless I will probably be happy with whatever Arteta goes for if it is one of those two combinations; Partey has been in superb form and Merino – having looked at the Chelsea game again – showed some really positive signs of progress as he beds in to the team. If I had a gun to my head I’d probably say he’ll play Partey because of form, which would mean Rice further forward.

The back five (including Raya) I think picks itself I think, because Timber Arteta said was doing fine and we know that White is out for what Arteta described as ‘months’. The initial rumours were an expected six to eight week period. So if Arteta is saying ‘months’ he’s not technically lying and that ambiguity probably buys him some time to not be asked about it. I have no intel, I’m not a doctor or sports injury specialist, but I suspect they’ll be looking at a mid-January return for White. Which means Jurrien is going to be needed for the immediate future and I think we will also need to see Tomiyasu return at some stage soon. It doesn’t sound like it by all accounts, so the ‘Partey at right back’ experiment may not be fully dead, unfortunately. I think Partey has equipped himself fine in that position, but his form has been such that having him at the six feels like we are a lot better in our functioning, than him in in the back four.

Nuno was asked about set pieces in his press conference, which makes sense given our potency, but he didn’t really give much up. He did talk about the fact they need to use their speed and the wide areas to hurt us, so that’s a clear indication again to what we’re up against. Forest to be compact, to try to frustrate, then to spring traps rapidly from front to back. So the name of the game today cannot be to push too hard, too fast, for that opener. But, also, we can’t commit too many forward if the game is goalless after a period of time (say 60 minutes, for example). If you’re Nuno or Forest fans today their blueprint is clear: get to halftime 0-0, or, if we can, a goal on the counter. Then frustrate Arsenal, then as the game starts to reach it’s final 15 – 30 minutes, look to hit on the counter if Arsenal are frustrated and pushing for goals.

That’s enough to make me nervous and I am well aware this will be a tough game today, especially seeing as what they did against Liverpool away, but there can be no excuses for an Arsenal team with lofty ambitions. It’s win or bust today. Let’s hope we don’t bust.

Back tomorrow morning for the blog, plus I think we’re gonna do an early morning Same Old Arsenal pod, so look out for that one from 9.30am.

Catch you then.