Arsenal duo excel in Nottingham Forest win as Arteta suffers gutting harm blow
Arsenal overcame the inconvenience of a delayed kick-off to edge previous Nottingham Forest of their first match of the Premier League season. Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka and Taiwo Awoniyi produced the objectives because it completed 2-1 on the Emirates Stadium, which means the Gunners maintain tempo with title rivals Manchester City after their win over Burnley on Friday. As the mud settles on an entertaining top-flight encounter, Express Sport takes you thru 4 issues we discovered…
Dazzling duo excel
So far, it has been a summer time of thrilling and bold recruitment by sporting director Edu. But the identical outdated suspects are simply as potent as ever. At occasions, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka virtually appeared as if they had been attempting to outdo one another on opposing flanks on the Emirates.
The Forest full-backs had a torrid afternoon to say the least. Martinelli’s skilful help for Nketiah will rightly get loads of consideration, even when his lung-busting runs to trace again will not, and Saka wasted no time in notching a Goal of the Month contender with an inch-perfect drive previous Matt Turner, who was left helpless after leaving Arsenal to hitch Forest earlier this week.
Arteta suffers harm blow
New signings could possibly be key to Arsenal’s fortunes this season after dropping out on the Premier League title by 5 factors in 2022/23. Frustratingly, Arteta could possibly be one down already as Jurrien Timber hobbled off with a regarding harm on Saturday afternoon.
The Dutchman, signed from Ajax in a £38million deal, began at left-back in opposition to Forest. He appeared in discomfort after a 50-50 problem within the first half, and of specific fear is the truth that he went down with no one round him within the second.
The again of Timber’s proper knee appeared to be the issue on each events, with the 22-year-old now set to be assessed.
Nketiah proves some extent
Cries of concern rang out across the Arsenal fanbase when it emerged that beginning striker Gabriel Jesus would miss the primary few weeks of the season after present process surgical procedure. Nketiah, in the meantime, could have been rubbing his fingers collectively on the prospect of a run within the staff.
There is now appreciable proof that the 24-year-old is best when he begins than when he comes off the bench. Last marketing campaign, Nketiah bagged 9 objectives in 18 begins, and 0 in 21 substitute appearances.
The run continued in opposition to Forest as he latched onto Martinelli’s intelligent pirouette and completed previous Turner to open the scoring, in addition to his particular person account, inside half an hour of the primary whistle.
New signings slot in
Aside from injury-stricken Timber, Declan Rice and Kai Havertz had been additionally making their Premier League debuts for the Gunners. Rice, who signed from West Ham in a £105m deal earlier this summer time, was achieved patrolling the bottom of midfield, seeing loads of the ball and trying to cross ahead at any time when potential. The solely factor that will have his day higher was a aim, having struck the woodwork within the second half.
Havertz performed on the left facet of a midfield three, taking over a place as superior as Martin Odegaard when Arsenal had the ball. There had been flashes of the German’s capability in opposition to Forest, to not point out his willingness to place a foot in, however on the entire it was evident that Havertz isn’t but as sharp as his team-mates and may have a number of weeks to get absolutely up to the mark.