These are the sort of games that are crucial for Arsenal as they hunt down the title for the fourth year running under Mikel Arteta. 

The Gunners drew 14 games in the Premier League last season, only Everton (15) drew more games than Arsenal. This is too many cheap points dropped if you want to win the Premier League, so Arteta will recognise the importance of this game.

Forest have been in poor form for a while; they’ve started the season with just one win from their opening three games and struggled towards the end of last season, which was perhaps an early indicator of Nuno’s departure. Ange Postecoglu has come through the door to a polarising response. 

Forest have picked a manager with a very different style of football than the one that Nuno has been relying on for the last few seasons. I think it’ll take time to work. Arsenal can take advantage of that transition and punish Forest, who will probably look to be a bit more expressive than they were under Nuno.

Madueke is set to continue in his role on the right wing for Arsenal in the absence of Bukayo Saka. He comes into this game with plenty of confidence, having started both of England’s World Cup Qualifying matches against Andorra and Serbia, impressing in both games.

He scored in England’s 5-0 rout of Serbia, which marked his first goal for the Three Lions, and he’ll be eager to build on that with his first goal in the Premier League for the Gunners.

Madueke is a serious shot threat; he led Chelsea’s attack last season at multiple points during the campaign for shots and shots on target - even eclipsing the record of players like Palmer. He showed this quality against Liverpool just before the international break; he was the best player on the pitch and had three shots, one of which demanded a save from Alisson.

Madueke averaged 3.52 shots per 90 and 1.41 shots on target per 90 in the Premier League last season, which is a good overview of the consistency he can find when it comes to his shot count. 

Gyokeres is a very physical player and thrives off the duels he has with the opposition centre-backs. He’ll have exactly the type of battle he wants here, up against Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo, who are likely to mirror the approach that De Ligt took against Gyokeres in Arsenal’s first game of the season.

De Ligt fronted up Gyokeres’ bullish approach head-on and drew three fouls in just 60 minutes from the Swedish forward. Gyokeres contested 13 duels in that game, which is an example of what I believe to be one of the main flaws in Gyokeres’ game.

There is no doubt that he is an elite finisher, but I think he gets a bit too obsessed with pinning the opposition centre back instead of trying to hold the ball up. He gets entangled in the physical battle, which means he isn’t able to support his side with link-up play.

Gyokeres averaged 0.77 fouls committed per 90 in Liga Portugal last season, but you would expect that record to rise in the Premier League, seeing as he is up against a much higher quality of defender. De Ligt has also given centre-backs across the Premier League a good blueprint as to how to manage Gyokeres, which can aid Murillo and Milenkovic in drawing a foul from him here.

Elliot Anderson comes into this game having had an excellent last few weeks from a personal point of view. He started and played the entire 90 minutes in both of England’s victories over Andorra and Serbia during the international break.

I thought he was the best player on the pitch against Andorra, and he produced another high-level performance against Serbia, managing a shot in both games. His profile is perfect for addressing the issue that England were facing in increasing the tempo in the middle of the park 

Anderson has had four shots across his three Premier League appearances for Nottingham Forest this season (1.33 per 90) - he’s had at least one shot in two of these appearances. 

Anderson had 40 shots across his 37 Premier League appearances last season (1.31 per 90).

Elliot Anderson has avoided a booking up until this point of the Premier League season, but has a higher chance of receiving a caution here in Forest’s biggest challenge of the season so far.

Anderson received 10 yellow cards across his 33 Premier League appearances last season - no Forest player picked up more yellow cards than Anderson in the Premier League last season. He averaged 1.61 fouls committed per 90 across these fixtures, which is a solid record to further suggest that he has a decent chance of picking up a booking here.

Anderson is likely to line up against a talented Arsenal midfield trio of Odegaard, Zubimendi, and Rice, who can all test the now England international. Anderson is also likely to have a few run-ins with Eberechi Eze, who should make his first start for Arsenal here. 

Anderson contested 19 duels and committed two fouls in the 0-0 draw that these sides contested at the City Ground last season.

Bukayo Saka may be absent for this game, but Williams is still set to be regularly tested by Noni Madueke. Williams lines up as a left back for Forest and has committed three fouls across his three Premier League appearances so far (1.00 per 90), picking up a yellow card in the process, which came against Brentford.

Madueke is very direct and will look to take on Williams at every given opportunity. Williams may find himself in a few more situations where he has to commit a foul under Ange Postecoglu if the Spurs manager is going to demand the same from the fullbacks as he did during his time in the dugout in North London.

Madueke won 25 fouls across his 27 starts in the Premier League last season (1.10 per 90), which is an average that could be set to increase this season if Madueke is able to go up another level from the standard we’ve seen from him up until this point.

Rice scored and provided two assists for England over the international break, with the freedom afforded to him to push high up the pitch, with Elliott Anderson keeping an eye on proceedings behind him. 

Rice is a player who should be scoring more goals. His assist record is pretty strong and should remain a vital aspect of his game this season, with the threat that Arsenal always pose from set pieces.

Rice has registered one assist already this season and will be eager to eclipse the 19 goal contributions he provided for Arsenal across his 52 appearances in all competitions for the Gunners last season.