ARSENAL 3–0 NOTTM FOREST: BY THE VISUALS
ARSENAL 3–0 NOTTM FOREST: BY THE NUMBERS
11 — League games played heading into Saturday’s home match against Nottingham Forest, following the last interlull until March 2025.
Across those 11 games, Arsenal have faced six of their toughest nine domestic fixtures: City (A), Villa (A), Chelsea (A), Spurs (A), Newcastle (A), and Liverpool (H).
9 — Consecutive league games (including Forest) from now until mid-January where Arsenal won’t face a single team that finished in the top half of the table last season, aside from United at home, who currently sit 12th.
It’s been a stop-start start to the Premier League season, with injuries, red cards, and questionable refereeing decisions all playing a role. A fair bit has gone against us, but we now have a chance to build momentum and start stacking up three points game by game.
That’s why it was so important to beat Forest – they were unbeaten in the league away from home this season (W3, D2) and are the only team to have beaten Liverpool at Anfield in 2024–25.
19 — Shots for Arsenal, the third most we’ve recorded in a league game this season, behind the matches against Leicester (35) and Southampton (29).
6 — Shots for Bukayo Saka (most overall). This is the third time this season Saka has taken six or more shots in a game. Seven is the most any Arsenal player has registered all season (Saka twice and Havertz twice).
1.19 — Expected goals for Arsenal; we’ve accumulated more in only four domestic fixtures this season.
4 — Goals for Thomas Partey scored outside the box during his Arsenal career (0.04 xG on the day), out of a total of seven.
17 — Years and 247 days young, Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest Englishman to score a league goal for Arsenal when he converted our third (0.08 xG, 0.17 xGOT).
7 — Games prior to Forest visiting The Arsenal in which we’d gone without stopping the opposition from scoring.
We won games last season because of our ability to consistently keep clean sheets. So far this season, we’ve conceded too many goals. There are a number of reasons—red cards, injuries, etc.—but it was reassuring to witness a defensive performance that produced stats similar to what we’d grown so accustomed to seeing last term.
0 — Shots on target for Forest. The first time this season that Raya hasn’t been called upon to make a save in the Premier League.
0.33 — Expected goals against. The second-best performance this season in terms of xG against, with only Leicester accumulating less (0.32) and well below our season average of 1.17 xGA.
7 — Shots for Forest. They’ve only taken fewer in two other games this season (Liverpool 5, Brighton 4).
66% — Possession for Arsenal, the second-highest we’ve recorded this season.
57 — Touches in the opposition area for Arsenal. We’ve only accumulated more in one other game this campaign, against Leicester (70).
61 — Touches for Bukayo Saka, with 49 of those in the attacking third (80%) and 13 (21%) in the opposition box. Saka has only had more touches of the ball in two games this season.
Arsenal’s right-hand side caused the opposition problems from start to finish, with Ødegaard unlocking Saka as they linked up for the opener and continued to do so throughout the match sharing 36 passes in total.
10 — Passes into the final third for Martin Ødegaard (first overall), 14 progressive passes (first overall), and six key passes (first overall).
Having the captain back is so, so reassuring and a joy to watch. He’s truly elite offensively, the star of our pressing game, and he reminded us of what we missed during his recent injury layoff. It made perfect sense for Ødegaard to skip the international break, but I was surprised and relieved when he was sent back to Arsenal after traveling to Norway.
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Three goals, three points, a clean sheet, no injuries, and it was nice to manage players’ minutes ahead of a tough schedule. Next.
Follow me on Bluesky @jonollington
Sources: my own database, Opta, fbref, @Orbinho Bluesky feed
Great match, I wasn’t expecting us to be that far in advance of a team in a similar position in the league. Injuries, for the third season in a row have been a major factor, so great to hear Mikel has had 19 players in training rather than 13, especially with Odegaard leading so well. Let’s hope this is a sign for how we’ll be able to play over the rest of the season, (and with Rice to come back too).
COYR!!!
And no shots on target, that’s a great defence!
It’s easy to say “it’s only forest” but this is a club on fire right now. And, it must be remembered, beat Liverpool (the team that apparently already have their hands on the title) 1 – 0 at Anfield. So yeah. A really massive day for us and a perfect result to get us going again. The one concern I have is our ability to deal with midweek CL games. We just don’t seem able to manage the 3 game-a-week structure without dropping valuable points in one of the competitions. I think it’s a skill set that needs time and… Read more »
So, Liverpool “apparently have their hands on the title”. I know you’re being ironic, but a lot of people seem to think no one can catch them. Well, last year, a new manager of a (sort of) big team led them to a 8-2-0 record in their first ten matches–26 points in ten games! And yet, Spurs did not actually win the title or even contend. Now, there are differences: Liverpool are a much better team than Spurs and Slot is beginning from a strong platform left behind by Klopp (also, Spurs are Spurs). But there are similarities as well.… Read more »
I totally agree. I just don’t see Liverpool lifting the trophy. If I had a gun to my head, I’d still say City – as mad as that seems. Liverpool have the same energy as us two seasons back. I don’t think it’s sustainable. I think an injury or two and they are really in trouble. We just have to stay laser focused and wait for them to make mistakes. I actually don’t hate where we are at the moment. I don’t trust Liverpool and City look appalling without Rodri. It might seem counterintuitive but I think we are actually… Read more »
Do not agree with the so-called difficult Liverpool fixtures. Real Madrid does not play in PL, people. Man U?, current Man City? They already played Chelsea and Villa.
I’m surprised our xG wasn’t 2 or above. Felt like we created a lot of good chances in the 1st half but maybe it just felt so after going so long from quality freeflowing football.
Very interesting stat about our next 11 games being with teams from the bottom half, hopefully we get 25+ points to keep pressure at the top.
Yesterday, I was happy we did not remain in our defence too much. It looks we were forced to group in the defence if forced by the opponents.
We need 30
Context is everything.
I didnt realise we’ve already played 6 of our 9 toughest domestic fixtures and we are still 4th despite some dubious red cards and key injuries. Future looks good if we can now keep players fit and on the pitch, so as to build on this latest result
agree, apart from Ben, Tomi surely must be available any time soon, another quality addition to our squad is what’s needed, ok, we are far behind points with scousers but they will drop points, they are not all that, cit’heh are looking as not hard to beat, it’s ours now to have that run over Xmas period where we stumble at times.
Great job, Jonollington👊🏾
Pretty much all the games will be tough, regardless of opposition position in the table. It’s more important that we have players back than that we have an “easier” run of games.