London Club, Arsenal defeated Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the city ground to build momentum ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash against Liverpool at the Emirates.
Goals from Gabriel Jesus who returned to scoring ways and Bukayo Saka were enough to hand The Gunners maximum points, despite Taiwo Awoniyi’s late consolation for the home side.
Returning to the ground where they technically lost the Premier League Title last season, Mikel Arteta’s side dominated proceedings at the early stages of the game with a whopping 82 percent possession of the ball.
However, the home side kept Arsenal at bay as the Gunners failed to create any decent chances in the first half bar a half chance gifted to Saka through a deflected clearance by Andrew Omobamidele at the stroke of halftime but it went begging and the first half ended in stalemate.
The second half was much better as Forest created chances of their own and turned the game into an end-to-end affair with Arsenal still dominating the game.
Matt Turner had to save a low shot from Saka before Gabriel Jesus rattled the bar from point-blank range as the Gunners kept going closer to taking the lead. The Brazilian soon made up for his miss just over the hour mark as he made a solo run from the left flank and slotted the ball between Turner’s legs from a tight angle to put Arsenal ahead.
The desperation for an equalizer by the home side opened up another opportunity for Arsenal on the counterattack to double their lead. Jesus turned the provider this time, located Saka and a low drive from the Englishman went beyond Turner’s reach to seal Forest’s fate late in the game.
With a minute of regulation time left to play, Taiwo Awoniyi outmuscled Saliba and beat David Raya to reduce the deficit for Forest and possibly gave them the feeling of getting something late on in the game.
The Nigerian forward went agonizingly close to level things up deep into extra time but his effort was saved and held by Raya and Arsenal claimed all three points.
The Gunners will build on this momentum ahead of their Sunday game against Liverpool.
