Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard lead stylish Gunners to bounce-back win

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·23. November 2024

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest: Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard lead stylish Gunners to bounce-back win

Gunners duo deliver dominant displays as Mikel Arteta’s title hopefuls crucially snap four-game winless Premier League run

Arsenal easily got back to winning ways in the Premier League and breathed new life into their faltering title bid by brushing aside Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium.

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Bukayo Saka and Thomas Partey both netted with fantastic strikes on Saturday and Ethan Nwaneri also scored his first top-flight goal as the Gunners ended a damaging four-match winless run in the top-flight in their first game back following the international break as they look to close the gap to early leaders Liverpool following a difficult start in the latest title race.

Arsenal - who showed five changes from their 1-1 draw at Chelsea a fortnight ago, with Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Leandro Trossard all fit to start but Ben White now out and Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli only on the bench - looked to have taken the lead after just four minutes in stormy north London when the inspired Martin Odegaard’s free-kick was nodded down and goal-bound by Mikel Merino, with Jurrien Timber quickest to slide home the rebound from point-blank range after Nicolas Dominguez had initially cleared off the line.

However, the offside flag was quickly raised against Merino to cut short Timber’s celebrations at what would have been his maiden Premier League goal, and the decision to rule it out stood after a lengthy VAR check.

Lively Arsenal would not be denied their early goal however as they put Forest under significant pressure with brilliant passing and movement and lovely intricate football in tight spaces in and around a crowded penalty area.

The impressive Odegaard was shining on his first Emirates appearance since August following an ankle injury and showed mesmerising footwork and speed of thought to flick through for Saka, who drifted horizontally across the box before smashing an unstoppable effort beyond Matz Sels in the Forest goal.

Arsenal were absolutely dominating possession and Sels made a number of fine stops to deny the likes of the often unplayable Saka, Odegaard and Trossard, with Forest’s attacking threat limited purely to set-pieces as Ryan Yates and Dominguez both headed accurate James Ward-Prowse free-kicks well over David Raya’s crossbar. The visitors wound up failing to register a single effort on target all afternoon.

Mikel Arteta replaced the booked Jorginho with Partey at half-time for Arsenal, while Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo sent on Jota Silva for the injured Anthony Elanga.

It was Arteta’s change that paid off quickly, with Partey having only been on the pitch for all of seven minutes before he received a pass from Saka and curled a sublime strike away from Sels and into the far corner from outside the box.

The icing on the cake for Arsenal came late on when teenager Nwaneri - who had almost opened his account just moments before - linked up with fellow substitute Raheem Sterling before confidently notching his first Premier League goal, with a consolation strike for Forest by Jota Silva then rightly chalked off for offside.