Former Arsenal star Paul Merson has predicted the score for the Gunners’ trip to the City Ground this weekend.
Arsenal come off an impressive 3-2 win against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, in which, goals came from Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi.
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For Gyokeres, it was a massive relief, after he had been struggling for goals in recent matches. But, the Swedish international will now hope he can kick on for Mikel Arteta’s side, and his next challenge comes against Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest.
Forest have won just one in their last six matches under Dyche, but they could pose a threat as they’ve already shown they can beat the top teams, as they managed to beat Liverpool 3-0 in November.
Paul Merson predicts a 2-0 Arsenal win
Former Gunner Paul Merson believes that whilst it could be a closer game than many are predicting, Arsenal will win at the City Ground, and he thinks the score will be 2-0.
Merson wrote in his weekly column for SportsKeeda: “Nottingham Forest enjoyed a huge result against West Ham last time out in the Premier League. They could have been 2-0 down in that game and ended up winning 2-1 courtesy of an 89th minute penalty. That was a big win for them.
“But I just can’t look beyond an Arsenal win here. This game is a potential banana skin for the Gunners. These are the kind of games that win you the league, not the one against Liverpool at home!
“Arsenal must turn up and perform in a game they are expected to win. If their attitude isn’t right, they will be up against from the start. I expect them to take care of the result quite comfortably.”
The Gunners are missing just three players
One thing that will benefit Arteta, is that his side have very few injuries at the moment, meaning he can pick and choose his best team against Forest.
Just Max Dowman, Cristhian Mosquera, and Riccardo Calafiori are out for the game, the latter being the biggest loss. Arteta will likely either play Myles Lewis-Skelly, or Jurrien Timer at left-back, with Ben White potentially coming in at right-back.
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