ARSENAL face a daunting trip to Nottingham Forest as they look to keep pace with Premier League leaders Liverpool.
The Gunners head to the City Ground for a match under the lights on Tuesday night.
And for all of the hosts’ troubles this season – including financial fair play and the sacking of Steve Cooper – they’ll be confident as the they have beaten Arsenal THREE consecutive times at home.
Nuno Espirito Santo is unbeaten in five of the seven matches he has been in charge for and Man Utd were defeated 2-1 in the last Premier League game at the City Ground.
As for Arsenal, they have had a ten-day rest since they thrashed London rivals Crystal Palace 5-0 at the Emirates.
The Gunners sit five points behind top of the table Liverpool and cannot afford more slip ups.
Before the Palace victory, they failed to win in four games.
Nuno will be forced to continue without Ola Ana, Cheikhou Kouyate, Willy Boly, Serge Aurier, Ibrahim Sangare and Moussa Niakhate as they are all involved in the knockout stages of Afcon.
Taiwo Awoniyi (groin) and Anthony Elanga (thigh) will need to be assessed after missing the 0-0 FA Cup draw against Bristol City, while Divock Origi has been granted permission to join up with Los Angeles FC.
Nuno Tavares cannot face his parent club, however, star man Morgan Gibbs-White is in line for a recall after being restricted to the bench at Ashton Gate.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFERS
Elsewhere, Mikel Arteta will be without Mohamed Elneny despite Egypt being knocked out of Afcon, and Takehiro Tomiyasu who is hoping to win the Asian Cup with Japan.
Jurrien Timber (ACL) and Fabio Vieria (groin) continue their recovery process, while Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice need to be assessed following knocks during the Crystal Palace win.
However, Thomas Partey is back in full training and could feature for the first time since last year.
Chris Wood has been in great form of late – but Gibbs-White is the star of the show.
He pulls the strings in midfield and is Forest‘s most creative player, while also impressing with his defensive work.
With the goals not flowing for Arsenal, it has been their defence which has drawn the most praise.
William Saliba has been a rock at the back all season and has an eye for a goal against a Forest side that has conceded plenty from set pieces.
Nuno was happy with a goalless draw with Bristol City in the FA Cup at the weekend due to his team finally keeping their first clean sheet under his leadership.
He said: “Conceding goals is something that has caused too many problems for us. Every game we score two or three goals, but we are conceding too much.
“I told the boys this is our first objective in the game, defend well and keep clean sheets because we have quality and talent to solve the game.
“As a team we must always look to defend well, be compact and not allow chances.”
Shock reports in Spain suggested that Arteta wants to quit Arsenal and take the Barcelona job.
The manager shut down those claims in a press conference, telling SunSport: “That’s totally fake news what you read yesterday.
“I don’t know where it’s coming from and it’s totally untrue. I’m really upset about it.”
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal
*Odds courtesy of Ladbrokes are correct at time of publication
