Arsenal (2) 2 Nottingham Forest (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 12th August 2023. Kick-off time: 12.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Thomas Partey, Ben White, William Saliba, Jurrien Timber; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Gabriel Magalhães, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Karl Herin.

Scorers: Eddie Nketiah (26 mins), Bukayo Saka (32 mins)

Yellow Cards: Ben White, Jurrien Timber

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 79%

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook

Fourth Official: Darren Bond

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Darren Cann

Attendance: 59,984

For this match against the East Midlanders, there are some personnel changes for this afternoon’s match, with Thomas Partey starting at right back, whilst Ben White started in the middle of defence alongside William Saliba, and it is great to see our new players (Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice and Kai Havertz) in the starting line-up today also.

First home game of the season, teething problems; unfortunately, the game was delayed by half an hour because of an e-ticketing system issue, which meant that the majority of fans (circa 35,000) were still outside the stadium at the scheduled kick-off time. However, when the match did eventually get underway, after just three minutes, Ben White floated a ball over to release Bukayo Saka but his low ball was cleared away before anyone could capitalise in on the pass. Arsenal are constantly pressurising the visitors, but it was them who had the first clear-cut chance when Brennan Johnson was clear through on goal against Aaron Ramsdale, but when our goalkeeper rushed him, he fortunately hit the ball high and wide of the goal. Their goalkeeper, Matt Turner, made a dashing save at the feet of Eddie Nketiah after a quarter of an hour, and although our man was offside, it was stil a spirited effort from the former Gunner. So early on in the game, it is totally one-way traffic, with our players dominating proceedings, and shortly after a Martin Ødegaard effort which almost found Kai Havertz in the middle of the penalty area that was cleared by defender Joe Worrall, our winger Gabriel Martinelli backheeled the ball to Eddie Nketiah, who turned away from his marker and fired the ball into the back of the net in past Matt Turner. Just a few minutes later, out of frustration, Ola Aina received the first yellow card of the afternoon for a foul on Bukayo Saka, and for the next seven or eight minutes, our forwards are just ripping the Forest defence to shreds with clever play and accurate passing. Inevitably, with just nine minutes of the first half remaining, Bukayo Saka cut inside from the right wing, shrugged off a challenge, picked his spot and fired in a curling shot past Matt Turner and into the top corner of the Forest net for our second goal of the afternoon. What a start to the new season! Just before the break, there was some nice work from our boys that saw some precision play release Ben White into space on the right of the penalty area, but his low pass in towards the penalty spot was cleared by a Forest defender, which was disappointing. During the four minutes’ injury time, Jurrien Timber received some treatment from our medical staff after going to ground following a challenge from a Forest player, and was then helped back to his feet; shortly afterwards, the half-time whistle was blown and he limped off the pitch to the concern of our supporters.

Although Jurrien Timber is starting the second half after injuring himself in that challenge late in the first half, he just does not look right, and less than five minutes after the restart, he was replaced by Takehiro Tomiyasu, who was in action soon after he entered the fray, when his pass for Gabriel Martinelli caught the Forest defence cold, but the ball has just a bit too quickness on it and Matt Turner picked it up easily. This match now has the hallmarks of complete control by our boys, and just after the hour, Gabriel Martinelli tried to sneak through the smallest of gaps in the Forest defence on the left hand side, but two visiting defenders stood their ground, but their ham-fisted attempt at clearing the ball fell into space, which was picked up by us and we came at them again, with Kai Havertz collecting the ball from a loose ball on the edge of the Forest box; he tried to beat Willy Boly in order to give himself space to shoot on goal, but the visiting defender’s sliding challenge separated our man from the ball. With sixteen minutes of the game remaining, goalscorer Eddie Nketiah was substituted for Leandro Trossard, and a couple of minutes later, Declan Rice almost snatched his first goal forthe club when his low drive from distance wickedly took a deflection and was pushed on to the post and behind by Matt Turner for an Arsenal corner. Declan Rice certainly had the bit between his teeth when five minutes later, he found himself in a large amount of space to meet a ball from the right wing with a swinging volley, which was not met cleanly uinfortunately, which sent the ball down into the ground and onwards for Matt Turner to save again from our new midfielder. Somehow, our concentration started to go a touch awry, and the visitors, who have done practically nothing all match, have decided to wake up and chance their arm at scoring a late goal, which they did when after clearing from one of our corners; Taiwo Awoniyi grabbed one back for the visitors unfortunately. We snapped out of it, and in doing so a Leandro Trossard chance was easily picked up by the Forest goalie and then Mikel Arteta decided to substitute Gabriel Martinelli for Gabriel to spark things up a wee bit. The match really livened up, with chances to score another goal at both ends of the pitch for each side becoming evident. In the seven minutes’ injury time, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard came close to scoring, but unfortunately Ben White was booked for time wasting, and after a superb effort by our captain that curled around the post, referee Michael Oliver blew the whistle to bring matters to a conclusion.

All in all, it was a great start to the season, and despite the injury to Jurrien Timber it was a good day at the office. The new boys fitted in very well into Mikel Arteta’s system and we played some superb football at times, with some clever accurate passing which pleased our supporters tremendously. With seventy-nine percent possession and fifteen shots on their goal (seven on target), and despite a late burst of activity from the visitors, we did more than enough to grab our first win of the season.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Monday, 21st August at 8.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon