Nottingham Forest travel to Arsenal with new boss Ange Postecoglou at the helm, and Chris Sutton has given his thoughts on how the Australian will fare.
Postecoglou was seen as Evangelos Marinakis’ dream appointment after the departure of Nuno Espírito Santo, but the new head coach has a rather tricky start to his tenure.
Away from the Arsenal game, Robert Earnshaw is predicting success for Postecoglou at Forest, building on the strong season that saw the Reds qualify for European competition.
The conversation that is dominating the buildup has surrounded Postecoglou’s style of play, with Sutton revealing how he expects the Australian to approach the trip to the Emirates in his prediction of the game.
Chris Sutton attends Liverpool vs Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Chris Sutton predicts Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest
Sutton is excited to see Postecoglou back in football, even if the new Reds boss’s attacking style of football can be divisive.
However, in his predictions for the Arsenal game for BBC Sport, Sutton has admitted that he’d be surprised to see Forest change their style so drastically.
He said: “I am not expecting an extreme change from Nottingham Forest in Ange Postecoglou’s first game in charge.
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“Sure, he will tweak things, and he has got his principles where he likes to play attacking football, but I can’t imagine him going in with a high defensive line in his first game, especially against Arsenal.”
Despite this expectation of a cautious tactical start, Sutton is still expecting Postecoglou to lose his first game in charge of Forest, landing on a 2-0 Arsenal victory as his final prediction.
To make matters worse for the Reds, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have received some good news about one of their top stars.
Arsenal receive major injury boost ahead of Nottingham Forest
In terms of injury news at the City Ground, it’s been a difficult week as Ola Aina suffered a hamstring injury that will keep him out for at least three months.
For Arteta, though, the news has been more positive as, although he’ll be without Bukayo Saka, one of his most crucial defensive options has been back in training.
Arteta told the press: “Wilo [Saliba] trained today, so we’ll have a decision to make whether we play him or not. It’s very good news.”
Good news for Arsenal, but yet another factor that will make Saturday one of the Reds’ toughest challenges of the season.