Second meets bottom in Sunday afternoon’s Premier League showdown at the Emirates Stadium, as Arsenal tackle Nottingham Forest aiming to avoid a third successive game without a win.
The Gunners went down 2-0 to PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League on Thursday, while Steve Cooper’s men bested Liverpool 1-0 last weekend.
While taking nothing away from PSV Eindhoven’s stellar performance at the Philips Stadion – Cody Gakpo and Xavi Simons in particular terrorised the Arsenal backline – it is fair to say that the result had been coming for Mikel Arteta’s side.
As impressive as their winning streak had been, the Gunners had failed to convince against Bodo/Glimt, Leeds United or PSV in the previous week, and strikes from Luuk de Jong and Joey Veerman means that Arteta’s men have it all to do against FC Zurich next week to seal a last-16 spot.
Injury was added to insult for Arsenal in the wake of their defeat to PSV, as key defender Gabriel Magalhaes was spotted limping back to the team coach with an as yet unspecified injury, so Arteta could be forced into an unplanned rejig here.
Mohamed Elneny (hamstring) and Emile Smith Rowe (groin) remain sidelined, while Oleksandr Zinchenko is a perennial doubt with a calf problem.
Marquinhos(illness) and Matt Turner (groin) also missed out in midweek and are uncertain as well, but both players would only apply for places on the bench at best.
Should Gabriel be ruled out of this contest, Ben White could shift across to partner William Saliba at centre-back, with Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierneybombing down the flanks.
Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka- who has been penalised twice for diving in Arsenal’s last two games – will also be among the players to return to the first XI.
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As for the visitors, the quartet of Omar Richards (calf), Jack Colback (back), Harry Toffolo (hamstring) and Moussa Niakhate (thigh) remain sidelined, while Lewis O’Brien has been dealing with a particularly nasty illness.
It remains to be seen if O’Brien will have recovered sufficiently in time for the trip to the Emirates, but Cooper should leave his starting lineup largely untouched following their memorable success over Liverpool.
Jesse Lingard endured another fruitless afternoon and was taken off just after the hour mark, though, meaning that Brennan Johnson will be eyeing an immediate recall to the first XI.
