Zubimendi's maiden goals enough for Arsenal win

Arsenal is back to winning days. After an unfortunate loss against Liverpool, the Gunners continued their good start of the season with another commanding win, this time at home against Nottingham Forest 3-0. Already three points less than the Reds, and with huge games coming up in the next three weeks (Man City, Newcastle away, a trip to Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League), the Gunners needed a win and they got it easily. The good thing is that Mikel Arteta used his substitutes as starters in this game (Eberechi Eze for Gabriel Martinelli and Mikel Merino instead of Decklan Rice) and they did great.

This Arsenal team is definitely strong with some good, quality depth and will challenge Liverpool for the title. The Gunners continued to be great at the back and David Raya made his 100th appearance for Arsenal today, notching another clean sheet. The home team now scored 34 goals from corners since the start of the 2023-24 season and one of three today was again after a corner. As for Nottingham Forest, they were awful and new boss Ange Postecoglou will have a lot of work to do. It was expected from the former Spurs boss to play attacking football, as it is his trademark but the away team didn’t nothing of a sort. In fact, they had only one great chance and one shot on target for 90 minutes.

Arsenal should have scored after only seven minutes and the chance came from a set piece (obviously), but the ball was too high for Merino to put a good shot in. However, it was only from five meters away and the Spaniard, who had four goals for his country in recent days should have scored. After that, nothing basically happened apart from Odegaard’s injury (had to come out in the 17th minute) until the 32nd minute, when Zubimendi scored. It was another corner (sixth) after which the ball came to the Spaniard who smashed it from 18 meters away. Five minutes later he tried again almost from the same spot but this time the ball went over the bar.

The second half started as bad as it could for Nottingham Forest – with a goal. One long ball over Savona sent Eze away down the line. His cross across the box was tipped by Gyokeres for 2-0. Simple stuff but deadly attacking. The only thing which Nottingham Forest did during the whole 90 minutes was happened in the 52nd minute. Ndoye sent a ball into the box and it incidently hit Wood in the head. The ball was going into the goal but Raya managed to tip it just in time and it went to hit the bar. And that was it from the guests. In the end, Zubimendi scored a brace when substitute Trossard crossed the ball from the left in the 79th minute.

PREMIER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 4

Saturday

Arsenal - Nottingham Forest 3-0 (1-0)

/Zubimendi 32, 79, Gyokeres 46/

17.00: (2.45) Bournemouth (3.50) Brighton (3.00)

17.00: (1.70) Crystal Palace (3.60) Sunderland (5.40)

17.00: (2.45) Everton (3.30) Aston Villa (2.95)

17.00: (2.00) Fulham (3.50) Leeds (4.10)

17.00: (1.45) Newcastle (4.40) Wolverhampton (7.50)

19.30: (3.60) West Ham (3.50) Tottenham (2.15)

22.00: (4.70) Brentford (3.85) Chelsea (1.80)

Sunday

16.00: (10.0) Burnley (5.50) Liverpool (1.35)

18.30: (1.75) Manchester City (4.20) Manchester United (4.60)

***odds are subject to change***