We look ahead to Saturday’s Premier League game at the City Ground with our Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal prediction and preview. Can the strugglers thwart the league leaders?
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer rates Arsenal’s chances of winning at a massive 66.4%. Nottingham Forest have lost eight of the previous 10 Premier League meetings between these two. Morgan Gibbs-White is a goal or assist away from becoming the first Forest player to register 50 goal involvements in the Premier LeagueNottingham Forest host Arsenal on Saturday in what is arguably the biggest game in the Premier League this weekend.
The Gunners’ lead at the top of the table may be down to three points when this game gets underway. Having to travel to the City Ground in the middle of a seven-day period that also includes trips to Chelsea and Inter won’t be Mikel Arteta’s idea of fun either. His side secured a 3-2 win at the former on Wednesday in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals, but it was a hard-fought victory.
They come up against the team 17th in the standings on Saturday, though. Granted, Opta’s predicted table suggests Forest will stay up by 10 points, but should West Ham and/or Burnley win points earlier in the day, their safety margin won’t be as secure at kick-off.
Unfortunately for boss Sean Dyche, there is little in the formbook to suggest his side will win here. Forest have lost six of their 10 Premier League home games this season (W3), already one more than they lost at the City Ground in the whole of last season. Only West Ham and Wolves have been beaten in front of their own fans more times in 2025-26 (both 8).
Their six losses on the banks of the Trent also represent the joint-most defeats in their opening 10 home matches of a league campaign. Only in 1908-09 have they ever lost as many as seven of their first 11, which could be their position by 7:30pm on Saturday.
Arguably more concerning to their hopes against Arsenal is that Forest have already conceded more home goals in the league this term (17) than in the entirety 2024-25 (16), so we can probably expect the Gunners to score at least once.
Arsenal drew 0-0 with Liverpool in their last Premier League game, but since the start of 2022-23, they’ve only failed to score in consecutive league games on two occasions. Interestingly, both times the second game came away against Nottingham Forest (in May 2023 and February 2025). This is as good an omen as we can provide for the City Ground faithful.
Everything else seems to favour the visitors. Arsenal have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three Premier League games against Forest, their longest run of league shutouts against them.
At the other end, the Gunners have scored more set-piece goals (excluding penalties) than any other side in the Premier League this season (14). This potency could prove decisive, given only Bournemouth (14) have conceded more from set plays than Forest (13).
Arsenal’s difficult run of games means this might be a match in which Mikel Arteta risks a slightly rotated line up. He won’t have many options in defence as Riccardo Calafiori, Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera are out, along with young midfielder Max Dowman.
Arteta will want to select Bukayo Saka if he can. No player has been directly involved in more shots following a ball carry in the Premier League this season, so it could be a long evening for (most likely) Neco Williams.
The home side’s hopes may rest largely with Morgan Gibbs-White. He scored in his last two Premier League games and is Forest’s highest league scorer this season with five goals. Gibbs-White is also just one goal or assist away from becoming the first player to register 50 goal involvements in the Premier League for the club.
He should feature in this game, as should most of Forest’s key players. The only potential starter who looks certain not to feature is Chris Wood, with back-up goalkeeper John Victor likely missing too. Ryan Yates is nearing a return, and Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangaré could potentially be available after ending their participation in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Forest manager Dyche has never seen his sides score more than once in a Premier League game against Arsenal. He’s also won just two of the 19 games, with Burnley in December 2020 and Everton in February 2023. That poor record seems unlikely to improve here.
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Head-to-Head
Despite all of the obvious reasons they are favourites, Arsenal do not have a good record at the City Ground. They won just one of their previous five visits in all competitions.
They have had the upper hand overall in the league, though. Nottingham Forest have lost eight of their last 10 Premier League games against the Gunners. Both exceptions came on home turf since their return to the division in 2022, as they won 1-0 in May 2023 and drew 0-0 in February 2025.
The only meeting since the latter of those games saw Arsenal win 3-0 at home in September. Martín Zubimendi scored either side of a goal from Viktor Gyökeres.
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Prediction
It’s no surprise that the league leaders are red hot favourites to beat the relegation-threatened side.
Arsenal won 66.4% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000 simulations of the match, so an away win is essentially a two-in-three chance.
The next likeliest outcome is a draw, at 18.2%, followed by a victory for Nottingham Forest (15.4%).
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Predicted Lineups
Nottingham Forest: Mats Selz, Ola Aina, Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo, Neco Williams, Nicolás Domínguez, Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White, Omari Hutchinson, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus.
Head Coach: Sean Dyche
Arsenal: David Raya, Jurriën Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Viktor Gyökeres.
Head Coach: Mikel Arteta
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Prediction: Can Dyche Dent Gunners’ Title Charge? Opta Analyst.
Hence then, the article about nottingham forest vs arsenal prediction can dyche dent gunners title charge was published today ( ) and is available on The Analyst ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal Prediction: Can Dyche Dent Gunners’ Title Charge? )
Also on site :
- UK to list 65-year-olds as reservists amid Russia threat claims – Telegraph
- AI boom fuels fears of an industry bubble (VIDEO)
- Amazon Has 'Super Warm' and ‘Soft' Mini Sheepskin Boots on Sale for $50, and They're 'Worth Every Penny'