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2022/23 English Premier League
Matchday 37
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
City Ground
West Bridgford, England
Saturday, 20 May 2023
Kick-off is at 18:00
Arsenal will look to keep their faint
Premier League title hopes alive when they face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday, May 20.
The Gunners lost more ground to Manchester City after suffering a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Brighton at the Emirates Stadium last Sunday, having seen the league leaders beat Everton by the same scoreline a few hours earlier.
Mikel Arteta's side are four points adrift of the Citizens, who have a game in hand and will retain the championship trophy if they claim victory over Chelsea on Sunday, May 21.
The North Londoners have picked up just 16 points from their last 10 matches to let City back into the title race, with the defending champions seizing the opportunity by collecting 30 points in the same period.
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The Reds furthered their survival bid with a 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, which followed on from a morale-boosting 3-2 home win over Southampton five days prior.
Steve Copper's team find themselves three points clear of the relegation zone in 16th place with two fixtures remaining. Everton (17th), Leeds (18th) and Leicester (19th) all have a better goal difference than them so Forest will be determined to finish the season strongly.
Taiwo Awoniyi appears to be hitting his stride at the right time, having scored two goals in each of his last two outings against the Saints and the Blues. The Nigerian striker has been hampered by injuries this season but he's still managed to bag eight goals 25 appearances for the top-flight newcomers.
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Martin Odegaard is flourishing in his role as Arsenal captain this term, having become indispensable to Arteta. The Norwegian has really stepped up in the absence of Gabriel Jesus and is the club's joint-top scorer with 15 goals after finding the back of the net five times in his last six games.
In team news, Forest's injury woes appear to show no signs of easing up as Giulian Biancone (knee), Dean Henderson, Chris Wood (both thigh), Neco Williams, Jack Colback (both head), Omar Richards, Jonjo Shelvey, Gustavo Scarpa (all calf) and Emmanuel Dennis all remain unavailable for selection. The visitors have a handful of injuries to contend with; Gabriel Martinelli (ankle), William Saliba (back), Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mohamed Elneny (both knee) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf) will all miss the trip to West Bridgford.
Cooper is calling on his players to continue showing a united front in the final two games after praising their togetherness in the performance against Chelsea.
"It's mixed feelings of working really hard to get something out of the game and being satisfied with that, but then at the same time knowing that it could have been different," he said.
"The goals probably sum up what I'm saying with how hard we've had to work for ours through strategies and set-pieces, but although they were two good finishes from Raheem Sterling, we'll look at it and think about how we let them in too easily.
"We don't blame anyone, we do everything together, which has been a big strength of ours this season. You can see it on the pitch, the culture and togetherness of the group is at a maximum which we'll need for the final two games."
Arteta issued an apology to the home fans for their abject display against the Seagulls, who scored three goals in the second half to put a massive dent in the Gunners' title prospects.
"First of all we have to apologise. Last week we were really proud and we stood with our chest out after the performance against Newcastle, and today we have to apologise for what happened in that second half. That is nowhere near the level that we have to show as a team and as a club," the Spaniard said.
"At first, it was extremely competitive and we expected that, there were a lot of interruptions in the game and we were a little thrown. We had some big opportunities after regaining the ball very high up the pitch, and then the second half was a different story.
"We started to lose a lot of duels, and obviously the way we conceded the goals is just unacceptable that this level, and after that we had no answers to get back into the game.
"We have to live with the emotion that we have right now that we fell short and it wasn't good enough. We're going to have to use that to play the next game at a very different pace and quality."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Forest - 1
Arsenal - 4
Draws - 0
Matchday 37 fixtures:
Saturday, May 20
13h30: Tottenham Hotspur v Brentford
16h00: Bournemouth v Manchester United
16h00: Fulham v Crystal Palace
16h00: Liverpool v Aston Villa
16h00: Wolverhampton Wanderers v Everton
18h30: Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Sunday, May 21
14h30: West Ham United v Leeds United
15h00: Brighton & Hove Albion v Southampton
17h00: Manchester City v Chelsea
Monday, May 22
21h00: Newcastle United v Leicester City
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