By Paul Stevens.

Photo credit: Getty Images.

Arsenal travel away to The City Ground to face Nottingham Forest for Sunday’s 4.30pm kickoff. The Gunners approach the game having won five games from six; however, Forest have had a much more turbulent start to this season having recorded three losses, two draws and just a single win in the Premier League.

With Arsenal already trailing Manchester City by three points and City hosting newly promoted Ipswich in the 3pm Saturday kickoff, there is very little room for error if Arsenal don’t wish to be six points behind their title rivals at this early stage of the season. Last season, Arsenal were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw in the corresponding fixture while the Gunners recorded a 3-0 win when the return match was played at the Emirates.

Treatment table.

Arsenal will of course be without the key figure of William Saliba who continues his recovery from a back injury picked up during last summer’s World Cup.

The unfortunate duo of Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi will likely miss the match after the pairs bizarre warm down injury picked up after the Leeds match.

Christos Tzolis is the final Arsenal player to miss out as the Greek international continues to recover from a hamstring injury sustained in the last international break.

For Nottingham Forest, Arsenal’s opponents will likely be missing some key personnel too.

Striker Igor Jesus will miss the game with the fixture coming too soon for the player to recover from a calf injury.

Key defender Nikola Milenkovic is also out with a knee injury picked up in Forest’s friendly played against Swansea.

While fellow defender Nicolo Savona will also miss the Arsenal fixture with a knee injury of his own.

The final player that is a doubt but could possibly make the bench is full back Neco Williams who continues his recovery from illness.

Player Focus.

This week’s player focus isn’t a current player at all but today I turn my attention to manager Mikel Arteta.

The Arsenal boss has a lot to think about coming into this fixture. The Lille match gave an opportunity to rest several key players, most notably Ricardo Calafiori, for the full match. Ben White and Jurien Timber shared minutes at right back and Noni Madueke deputised well for Bukayo Saka, who looked sharp when he completed the final 25 minutes of the match.

While Saka is likely to start the Forest match, Arteta has a conundrum when picking a left winger. Eberechi Eze impressed vs Lille, but is Madueke more of a natural fit on the Arsenal left?

Then comes the midfield enigma. Myles Lewis-Skelly has been a revelation since his move from the left back into midfield, which effectively helped Arsenal secure the title last season.

However, it cannot be underestimated how much of an impact new signing Bruno Guimaraes has made in his short time in Arsenal colours so far. Two match winning goals, the first being his critical strike against Sunderland. While Saka ultimately secured the points with his stoppage time penalty, it was Guimaraes who changed that fixture by opening the scoring. Then came his winner at Leeds, a clinical finish at a time when Arsenal needed a moment of magic, so how does Arteta find a balance?

Finally comes the striker debate. While Kai Havertz undoubtably links play and enables Arsenal to play a more multidimensional game, his finishing is often wasteful. Overall, Havertz is a net positive to the side and often facilitates the best of Arsenal’s one touch passing, intelligent movement and player telepathy which helps Arsenal break down stubborn defensive structures. However, the downside of the German’s performance vs Brighton left a lot to be desired.

Next, we must look at his current goal drought which extends to seven games in all competitions, a span of over a month.

On the other side of the debate is Viktor Gyokeres. While it cannot be argued that his goals played a huge part in Arsenal’s title win last season, there is an undeniable mismatch when it comes to the player’s qualities and how this current Arsenal side play. Yes, the player has featured less minutes this season and I would agree that overall, Gyokeres is a much more clinical finisher. Currently he does not seem to be making the right movements demanded of a Premier League striker and his hold up play for such a strong player needs work.

In a piece written last week, I made the comparison between Eze and Gyokeres, making the link between a lack of play time that affects player rhythm. Eze seems to have found his flow against Lille and as a result, this could put him in contention to start games for Arsenal. Gyokeres on the other hand has not impressed many and so must improve on aspects of his game if he wishes to dethrone Havertz from the starting line up.

Predicted Line Up.

This line up will be a fascinating insight into Mikel Arteta’s thinking and player management.

After Nottingham Forest, Arsenal face a gruelling four fixtures in the next two weeks. Bayern Munich away in the Champions League comes first, followed by fifth placed Everton at the Emirates. Then comes a midweek EFL cup fixture away at Fleetwood Town, with the final game being a titanic trip to Anfield to face Liverpool.

While the EFL fixture presents a clear opportunity for wholesale changes to his line up, Arteta will need to field a full-strength line up in three of the next four. With all that in mind, this would be my starting line up for Nottingham Forest along with the rational for my selections.

David Raya will start in goal alongside centre backs Gabriel Magalhaes and Ezri Konza. All three will likely feature in three of the four games and play 90 minutes in each.

Ricardo Calafiori starts in every match Execpt the EFL fixture, but with Piero Hincapie out I would expect Myles Lewis-Skelly to rotate with the Italian in a comparable way to how Arsenal’s right backs operate.

Jurien Timber started and impressed against Lille in midweek, but I would expect the player’s minutes to be carefully managed as he builds match fitness. In the coming days, likely against Bayern, but certainly at Anfield, I expect Timber to reclaim his starting role. But for now, I expect Ben White to start against Forest with Timber playing the final half an hour.

With Martin Zubimendi out and Mikel Merino struggling to impress vs Lille, Arteta faces an unaffordable gamble in midfield. The Gunners boss will have to play (and indeed pray) that the trio of Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Bruno Guimaraes can continue to build a strong playing relationship, but critically, that all three stay fit for the next two weeks especially.

Up front I expect Kia Havertz to lead the line, mainly due to his ability to link play and the lack of space to operate, which would suit Gyokeres more. Bukayo Saka will play on the right wing, and I would play Eberechi Eze on the left, partly as a reward for his goal scoring exploits vs Lille, but also as another tool to break down what will be a strong, disciplined mid-block employed by Oliver Glazner.