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Another cracker of a match to look forward to on Wednesday evening and the result of this encounter will tell us so much about where these two teams will finish at the end of the season.
Forest have impressed so far this season, no doubt about that. Most pundits, including ourselves, have been waiting for a losing run to kick in, but it just hasn’t happened.
Both of these teams lost at the weekend, we watched both matches and it was Forest who impressed the most. After going 4 – 1 down at St James Park, they pulled it back to 3 – 4 when the majority of teams in the Premiership would have fallen apart and allowed Newcastle to score even more.
As for Arsenal, even though they had a player sent off in their home defeat against West Ham, we don’t think it made any difference to the final score. They are a side ravaged by injuries, but Mikel Arteta must be wondering what he can do to get his side firing on all cylinders again.
Odds and Predictions
On taking a close look at the odds for this match, we believe that it is one of those rare occasions when the bookies have made a big mistake.
Going into this match, Arsenal are sitting in second place in the Premier League table, Forest are third, the Arsenal performances have not been good, and this match is being played under the lights at the City Ground, which will be absolutely rocking.
Taking all of that into account, the football betting sites have priced the match up at 4.0 for a Forest win, Arsenal are 1.90, and the odds for the draw is 3.60.
Nottingham Forest might not win this match, but those odds are massive — they really are. So, for the first of our predictions, we recommend a small wager on a scoreline of 2 – 1 at odds of 15.0.
For the last one of our tips, we have decided to play it safe (even though we think this match will result in a victory for the home team) and recommend a bet in the Double Chance market, “Nottm Forest or Draw”.
At odds of 1.90, we feel that this is a very good bet.
Comparison and Statistics
Nottingham Forest and Arsenal have played each other head-to-head 102 times in their history, Arsenal have won 53 of these matches, Nottingham Forest have won 29, with 20 games ending in a draw.
The last five H2H encounters between the two teams have been pretty one-sided, with Arsenal winning four and Forest winning one.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Nov 2024 | arsenal | 3-0 | nottingham-forest | Premier League |
| 30 Jan 2024 | nottingham-forest | 1-2 | arsenal | Premier League |
| 12 Aug 2023 | arsenal | 2-1 | nottingham-forest | Premier League |
| 20 May 2023 | nottingham-forest | 1-0 | arsenal | Premier League |
| 30 Oct 2022 | arsenal | 5-0 | nottingham-forest | Premier League |
Expected Line Ups
Everyone laughed at Forest in their first season in the Premiership when they spent millions of pounds on questionable players, but their strength in depth is now pretty impressive.
Hudson-Odoi was impressive against Newcastle, Gibbs‑White must be on the shortlist for the Player of the Season for Forest, and Chris Wood has surprised everyone with his goal total for the season so far.
Arsenal are missing key players up front, but what surprised us in the game against West Ham was the performance of the usually dependable Declan Rice, substituted early in the second half against his old club, he went AWOL just when Arsenal needed him the most.
Nottingham Forest (4‑2‑3‑1): Matz Sels; N. Williams, N. Milenkovic, Murillo, Ola Aina; E. Anderson, Ryan Yates; C. Hudson‑Odoi, M. Gibbs‑White, A. Elanga; Chris Wood.
Arsenal (4‑3‑3): David Raya; R. Calafiori, W. Saliba, Gabriel, J. Timber; Declan Rice, M. Odegaard, T. Partey; L. Trossard, E. Nwaneri, Mikel Merino; AML C. Hudson‑Odoi.
How Will the Season Pan Out
With 12 games to go, Arsenal will hold on to second place. They are now 11 points behind Liverpool, so there’s little chance of them mounting a challenge for the title.
If Forest can hold onto third position, it will be a remarkable achievement, but there are a number of teams who can catch them, all the way down to Brighton in ninth place.
If they qualify for Europe, though, that will surely be more than anyone expected at the beginning of the season.
Bio:
Football bores me to tears! I’m not interested in the Rooney’s and Ronaldo’s of the world, but I am interested in making money. With that in mind, I spend hours trawling through the statistics of the football markets and can usually come up with an angle which presents a viable betting opportunity.
Key contributions:
Chief statistician or Stato, as my colleagues like to call me
Personnel betting philosophy or quotes:
“Risk wisely, gain greatly”
