Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal FA Cup preview: How to watch, lineups, Patino, & prediction

Arsenal Team News vs Nottingham Forest – Heavy Rotation for Arteta?

The main talking points ahead of this match centre on who will come in and be given a chance up from the academy.

It looks like there will be a vacancy in midfield for someone like Patino with Xhaka expected to miss out for an undisclosed reason (he wasn’t in training) while Maitland-Niles’ departure also frees up room for someone to come in and impress.

Sambi Lokonga looks set for his first start in a number of weeks with Partey and Elneny away in Cameroon for AFCON, and despite being the centre of endless transfer speculation, Eddie Nketiah may be given the nod up front.

How about Pablo Mari? Another forgotten man in line for minutes, Arsenal are said to be willing to move the Spaniard on this window as he grows restless on the sidelines, and maybe even Calum Chambers could get a nod. Gabriel will serve his one-match suspension for this game.

It will depend on the news of Arteta’s press conference with player updates, as the squad may well have been hit with further Covid cases.

As for the hosts, Mohamed Drager is away on AFCON duty, while Jordi Osei-Tutu returned to parent club Arsenal following the termination of his loan.

Alex Mighten, Max Lowe, Loic Mbe Soh, Joe Lolley and Richie Laryea are five injury concerns Steve Cooper, who could hand debuts to new signings Keinan Davis and Steve Cook on Sunday.

Continued on next page…