Morning all. Arsenal are in Premier League action this afternoon, taking on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. It’s been a tricky place for us to visit down the years with just one win in our last five there, but after two successive post-Interlull wins, hopefully that’s something we can put right today. Having rotated quite a bit in midweek, I think we’ll see some of the players who sat out the Lille game from the start come back in again today. The obvious ones are Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Riccardo Calafiori, with Viktor Gyokeres, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Mikel Merino and one of Eberechi Eze or Noni Madueke dropping out. At right back, having started Jurrien Timber on Tuesday and with a trip to Bayern Munich on Wednesday, I’d like to see Mikel Arteta take advantage of the fact he has his two right-backs fit and available, and bring Ben White back in. His overlapping could be important today, and as much as I love him, I think I’d go with Timber in the Champions League this week, so hopefully the manager takes what feels like a rare opportunity to manage their minutes. Then there’s the question of who plays on the left-hand side. Eze scored on Tuesday, and had a decent game, but he picked Madueke against Leeds, a team that plays with a back five, and Forest’s set-up is similar so perhaps that might influence the selection today. It took us a while to get to grips with the game last weekend, and we have been a bit barren in first halves so far this season, so ideally this is one where we can get ourselves off to a fast start. Forest’s start to life under Oliver Glasner has been difficult, just one win and that was away at Aston Villa. Nevertheless, I don’t think we should underestimate them for a second. I watched them against Crystal Palace last weekend, and how they weren’t winning the game handsomely by half time was ridiculous. They made so many good chances, but were profligate in front of goal, and by the break they found themselves 2-1 down. Such are the vagaries of football, but they have some real threat – particularly via Morgan Gibbs-White, and you can be sure they’ll be looking at a home game against the champions as a way to kick-start their campaign. Mikel Arteta referenced the fact our last two trips there have resulted in 0-0 draws, saying: We’re going to try really hard to score goals and to prevent goals as well. It’s going to be a really tough match, they’re an extremely well-coached team. We know that, we already have experience with Oliver Glasner in the past and they’re a team that at home can create a really special momentum, so we are ready for it. This is also the start of a run where five of our next six games are away from home. It’s been something of a quirk of the fixture list this season, a lot of travelling, and if that feels a bit daunting, getting this cluster of games off to a good start would be very useful. The manager should have plenty on the bench too today should he need it, and hopefully we can take all three points back to North London before we head for Munich next week. — Meanwhile, just in case you see it elsewhere presented as an exclusive, Andrew Allen put a lot of work into a story published a month ago about Arsenal’s plans to redevelop the training ground at London Colney. You can read it here. We also have another exclusive we’re working on. We hear there might be something going on at the Watergate Complex. More to follow. — Arsenal Women continue to struggle this season, a disappointing 1-1 draw at home with Birmingham City the latest poor result. As ever, Tim and the crew have you covered with the best coverage over on Arseblog News. — Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. As ever, we’ll bring you live blog coverage of the game later, as well all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News like the match report, player ratings, manager reaction, quotes round-up and more. There’s also a preview podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to ahead of kick off. Don’t forget the updated Arseblog apps also have a cool new matchday centre, full of stats, alerts, and much more. Catch you later for the game. The post Arsenal looking to avoid another blank at the City Ground appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.