Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest: 3 players who could make the difference

2. Bukayo Saka

The Gunners are perhaps overly reliant on the talents of Bukayo Saka, but a small midweek rest should help ease any fitness worries and enable him to be at his very best on Sunday.

Our Starboy is enjoying another fantastic campaign this year and has been a major beneficiary of Mikel Arteta’s alteration to the right-wing dynamic, where advanced positioning and overlapping runs from Ben White have opened up more space for the youngster to operate in.

This budding partnership will face a particularly stern test against Forest as Cooper employs a defence-oriented system and will encourage staunch rear-guard action if his side have something to hold onto later in the game.

Arsenal must drag the visitors out of their settled shape if they are to create opportunities, and they certainly have both the positional structure and individual quality to do so, epitomised by the guileful Saka who excels in 1v1 matchups and can use both feet to devastating effect.

His confidence is sky-high at the moment and he will be difficult to stop if he maintains his recent form. All he needs now is adequate protection from the officials….

Continued on the next slide…