The opening weekend of the Premier League sees Arsenal host Nottingham Forest at the Emirates. We’ve previewed the game and given you our best bets for the occasions.

Arsenal will be looking to kickstart another Premier League title challenge by seeing off Nottingham Forest, whose away record last season will not be filling their fans with too much hope.

Given how good and attack-minded Arsenal were last season, it’s easy to presume they will overrun Steve Cooper’s men, but Forest will have learnt a lot from last season. They should be far better equipped to deal with the Gunners and they will be hoping to avoid another 5-0 hammering at the hands of Mikel Arteta’s men.

Team News

Gabriel Jesus will miss Arsenal’s Premier League opener and will spend the next few weeks recovering from a knee operation, while Mohamed Elneny has been absent since January.

Oleksandr Zinchenko missed the Community Shield victory over Manchester City due to a calf issue, while Reiss Nelson, Jorginho, and Folarin Balogun are all doubts to feature on Saturday.

As for Foerst, Brennan Johnson made his highly-anticipated comeback off the bench against Frankfurt, but Steve Cooper has played down Taiwo Awoniyi’s chances of recovering from his knee problem in time for the weekend.

Arsenal/Arsenal – Half time/full time @ 3/5

A little bit short, the price for this one, but I’m expecting it to land.

As mentioned above, the Gunners cruised to a 5-0 victory over Forest last season, and they will want to lay a marker down here with it being their first match of the season, especially since it is in front of their own fans.

Spirits will already be extremely high in Arteta’s camp following their Community Shield success, and with Manchester City playing on Friday night, the Gunners have the chance match or even better their result early doors, if Pep Guardiola’s side are frustrated at Turf Moor.

In addition, Forest had the worst away record in the league last year, amassing just eight points from 19 games.

Bukayo Saka to score anytime @ 5/4

Last season for the Gunners, star winger Bukayo Saka was arguably the pick of the bunch, winning Young Player of the Year at the 2023 London Football Awards.

The English international managed to net 14 goals throughout the league season, with 10 of those coming on home soil.

He will be pivotal to Arsenal’s title chances once again this season, and Saturday marks a great opportunity to open his account for the new campaign.