{"id":11874,"date":"2025-09-12T09:17:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11874"},"modified":"2025-09-12T09:39:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T08:39:00","slug":"lets-cut-forest-down-to-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11874","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Cut Forest Down to Size"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Thankfully the interlull is over and the Arsenal players are back on the day job. There, fortunately, also do not appear to be any reports of injuries to our international travellers.\u00a0These frequent interruptions to the Premier League programme have become much more a source of irritation and anxiety than an opportunity to view better football, as the quality of club and international football has become inverted, at least when it comes to the Premier League, as TTG observed in his interlull post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pleasingly, several of our players were rested for their nation’s second World Cup Qualifiers during this interlull, namely Eze, MLS, Calafiori, Martinelli, Gabriel and Mosquera. Of those who played, Madueke was man of the match (at least imho) and scored a lovely goal for England against Serbia while Rice had an excellent game providing two assists from corners and was unlucky not to score from several shots on target. \u00d8degaard played 90 minutes for Norway, is reported to have been back to his best, scoring a goal and providing two assists in their 11-1 romp against Moldova. On the other hand, Gy\u00f6keres had only a single shot on goal in Sweden\u2019s surprise defeat to Kosovo but at least put 180 more minutes into his legs to compensate for the absence of an organised pre-season and provided an assist in their earlier game. Timber had a 30 minute run out as a substitute in the Netherlands\u2019 victory over Lithuania while Trossard played an hour for Belgium in their 6-0 victory over Kazakhstan but did not score or contribute an assist. However, Merino added to his goal in Spain\u2019s earlier game by scoring an impressive hat-trick in their 6-0 victory in Turkey in which Zubimendi played 70 minutes but didn\u2019t add to his assist in their earlier game while Raya sat on the bench again. On the other side of the world, Hincapi\u00e9 is reported to have had an impressive match, beginning as an overlapping left back then moving to left centre back as Ecuador beat Argentina 1-0 in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time. Meanwhile, in the Under-21 Qualifiers, Nwaneri is reported to have had an outstanding performance, was awarded PotM and scored in England\u2019s 2-0 win in Kazakhstan. It seems to have been a very productive and problem-free interlull for our travellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit of Nottingham Forest begins a tricky run of fixtures with City and Newcastle on the horizon. After our undeserved narrow defeat against Liverpool just before the break, we need to take all three points from this game. Our record against Forest since their return to the top tier in 2022 is cause for optimism with 3 home wins by scores of 5-0, 2-1 and 3-0 and a solitary 0-1 loss, a 2-1 victory and a 0-0 draw in our away fixtures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elephants in the room are, of course, the Demis Roussos doppelg\u00e4nger and his newly acquired coach, the Greek Australian genius, formerly associated with that lot up the road, Ange (Second Season Silverware) Postecoglou. It\u2019s impossible to predict the impact that ditching Nuno Espirito Santo will have, a sacking in which our former Director, Edu, seems to be somewhat implicated. I hesitate to suggest that a \u2018new manager bounce\u2019 will be unlikely given the timing and rumours of internal unhappiness but it does seem unlikely. Our fat Aussie mate has had little time to inculcate his footballing philosophy which, with the suicidal high line he played at the Lane of Shame, is the polar opposite of the serried ranks of the middle and deep blocks favoured by Nuno. I have seen this change-over described as trading a counter-attacking style for a possession-based approach – we shall see! It\u2019s worth recalling that counter attacking was the style with which Ange surprised the Mancs in the UEFA Freight Rover Trophy through which Tottnumb blagged their way into the Champions League. Ange may even be prudent enough not to tinker with Forest’s established game style for this first game given his limited time with his players but I do hope he cannot resist confusing them with his football philosophy and Antipodean homilies. Go on, mate! It’s just who you are!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forest have several very familiar, talented players in Gibbs-White, Anderson, Hudson-Odoye and Wood and solid defenders in Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo and Williams who along with glove butler Sels gave Forest one of the best defences of last season. By the end of the window they had brought in 13 senior players. They have added some midfield grit with the loan signing of Douglas Luiz after his unhappy spell in Italy. Other major signings include: James McAtee (\u00a330m), a 22 year old \u2018number 10\u2019, whom Pep allegedly wanted to retain and whom City fans fear will become a second Cole Palmer; Arnaud Kalimuendo (\u00a326m), a 23 year old French striker who scored 40 goals in 113 appearances for Rennes and is an athletic, high pressing striker who runs into channels and stretches defences providing a contrast in style to target man Chris Wood; Dan Ndoye (\u00a335m), a 24 year old Swiss winger, who scored 8 goals for Bologna last season plus the winner against Milan to lift the Coppa Italia<\/em> and had two assists and scored a goal playing on the left wing for Switzerland in their two games last week; Nicolo Savona (\u00a313.4m) a 22 year old Italian right back\/centre back with 40 appearances for Juventus last season, scoring 2 goals and who was included in the Italian national squad in 2024. The Forest squad will not include Alex Zinchenko as he cannot face his \u2018parent club\u2019 but will include Omari Hutchinson, also once of this parish – a club record signing from Ipswich at \u00a337.5m! Hutchinson appears to be a rolling stone, gaining his latest move, this time only one year after his purchase by Ipswich, on the strength of a good Under-21\u2019s Euro tournament despite his less than effective season in Ipswich\u2019s brief Premier League cameo. The lad will be disappointed at being omitted from Forest\u2019s Europa League squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our visitors opened their season with a competent 3-1 home victory over Brentford then fought out a 1-1 draw at Palace. However, thereafter the coach\u2019s peri-match interviews appear to have had an effect on morale as, in their last match before the Interlull, they crashed to a feckless 0-3 home defeat to a West Ham side that had themselves hitherto looked totally abject this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forest have clearly added several more talented players this season and despite their backroom upheaval still carry an offensive threat, if we aren\u2019t careful, but many players are just in the door, can barely have learnt each others\u2019 names and hopefully the core of their team are in the midst of a tactical brainstorm which renders them less effective on the field. I suspect their back four will still prove difficult to penetrate and while I doubt whether Forest can transform into Ange\u2019s attack focused kangaroos in a matter of days, they do have players who can hurt us if we let our focus drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal squad have one longstanding absentee, Jes\u00fas, one medium term absentee, Havertz, one short-term absentee, Saliba, and two doubts, Saka and White, respectively recovering from a hamstring tear and an ankle knock. Both may be available after late fitness tests but while White may make the bench and get a late run out, I hope we hold Saka back for the City fixture. I have heard nothing, at the time of writing, about N\u00f8rgaard but expect him to be fit for selection. I anticipate that the same back four and midfield will start as faced Liverpool after 5 minutes but I would start Eze in place of Martinelli up front. Mosquera, who captained the Spain U-21’s for their first match but did not feature in their second (hopefully rested), fitted into the centre of defence seamlessly against Liverpool and should do so again against Forest. Hincapi\u00e9 may make the bench and may even make his debut as a late substitute for Calafiori but both unfamiliarity with his new team mates and long-haul travel count against the exciting Ecuadorian starting this one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To add threat to our left flank Calafiori should be encouraged to overlap Eze as he drifts into the ‘inside left’ channel. Hence I don\u2019t think MLS will start as he has been more inclined to move centrally, while I would bring Martinelli on after 60 minutes to use his pace against the Forest right flank. Meanwhile, I expect Madueke to wreak havoc on their left flank with his pace in combination with Timber and a re-invigorated Martin \u00d8degaard. It will be interesting to see how well Eze and Gy\u00f6keres link together as the latter drifts left and the former drives centrally. We have additional offensive options in Merino, Timber<\/s> (oops!), Trossard and Nwaneri if the opposition defence proves stubborn to our openers. My starting XI would be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madueke, Gy\u00f6keres, Eze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that the disarray that I hope to see in the Forest ranks will not come about and we will face a team more determined not to concede in the hope of taking a point rather than one following their new coach\u2019s attack-attack mantra while leaving themselves open to the Arsenal\u2019s silky play. However, we really must move the ball faster than we did last season and take advantage of transitions through speedier ball movement and a determination to get into the opposition box. Hopefully, \u00d8degaard\u2019s recent successful interplay with Haaland has triggered an instinct to create the kind of opportunities upon which Gy\u00f6keres can thrive while the inventiveness of Eze and the pace and directness of Madueke should consign the arc d\u2019ennui<\/em> to history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you will have deduced, I expect a closer game than we would like but I would be delighted with an early 2-0 lead for the Arsenal  followed by a masterclass in game management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Holic pound? You can get 6\/1 on 2-0 to the good guys but the value punt looks to be 28\/1 on 3-2 if you’re prepared to give up the clean sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, Holics wherever you are watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COYG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thankfully the interlull is over and the Arsenal players are back on the day job. There, fortunately, also do not appear to be any reports of injuries to our international travellers.\u00a0These frequent interruptions to the Premier League programme have become much more a source of irritation and anxiety than an opportunity to view better football, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11874"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11904,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874\/revisions\/11904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}