Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Prediction: Gunners to win again

Nottingham Forest welcome Arsenal to the City Ground in the Premier League on Tuesday evening (19:30), looking to bounce back from their 3-2 defeat at Brentford last time out.

The Gunners registered their joint-biggest win of the season at home to Crystal Palace on their last outing, beating the Eagles 5-0 in what was a much-needed result and performance.

These two sides met on the opening day of the campaign with Arsenal emerging as 2-1 victors at the Emirates Stadium. Can the visitors do the double over the Tricky Trees?

Match Odds

Forest are 13/2 to get back to winning ways. You can back a stalemate at 16/5, while Arsenal don't offer much value to get the three points at 4/11.

Both teams were on the scoresheet back in August and BTTS is valued at 10/11 to land on this occasion. Over 2.5 goals is priced at 4/6.

Team News

Forest's six absentees away at the Africa Cup of Nations are going to be missing for a bit longer as they have all made it to the knockout stage. Cheikhou Kouyate, Ola Aina, Serge Aurier, Willy Boly, Moussa Niakhate and Ibrahim Sangare are the players in question.

Defender Nuno Tavares is also unavailable for selection as he is on loan from the Gunners and cannot face his parent club. Trio Taiwo Awoniyi, Anthony Elanga and Divock Origi are all doubts to feature due to injury.

Arsenal are without Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who are at AFCON and the Asian Cup respectively. However, Elneny will be soon returning to north London following Egypt's elimination from the tournament.

Jurrien Timber and Fabio Viera are in the treatment room, while there are doubts over the fitness of key duo Declan Rice and Gabriel.

Arsenal to win to nil @ 5/4

The thrashing of Palace was something that Arsenal desperately needed after a disappointing festive period. Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli both scored braces, while Leandro Trossard completed the scoring in that match. We are starting to see more goals being shared across the squad as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus try to rediscover their goalscoring form.

They have still got a lot of work to do in the title race as they find themselves five points behind leaders Liverpool, while Manchester City have a game in hand on them both.

We are at the stage of the season where they can no longer afford to drop any points and they will be looking to post back-to-back victories in the top-flight for the first time since the start of December. We saw a glimpse of the Arsenal that were fluid in attack last season against the Eagles, and they will want to start finding that consistency in their play this term.

As for Forest, they are having issues with their own consistency, having lost three of their last five with two wins sandwiched in between. Nuno Espirito Santo has had an impact at the City Ground since replacing Steve Cooper, but the new manager bounce appears to be wearing off. And with key players in Awoniyi and Elanga missing, they will likely be asking too much of star man Morgan Gibbs-White against the Gunners.

Gabriel to score anytime @ 13/2

While there are some concerns that Gabriel could be absent this weekend, there is nothing concrete as yet and the Brazilian is expected to continue his excellent partnership with William Saliba in defence.

After having his brace awarded by the Premier League's Goals Accreditation Appeals Panel, following the initial award of an own goal to Dean Henderson, Gabriel has now matched his goals tally from last season in the league (three).

He offers such a threat from set-pieces and the fact that he was able to score from two in his last outing is evidence of that. Both his goals came from excellent movement towards the back post and Forest will feel that they will know how to deal with them, but the stats don't suggest this.

Following their defeat to Brentford, they have now conceded 11 goals from set-pieces this season, the most of any club in the Premier League. So Gabriel will be itching to face them in midweek as he looks to score in back-to-back matches. And at these odds, he is certainly worth a punt.