Forget beautiful football, Arsenal have to expose Nottingham Forest’s biggest weakness on Saturday

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Arsenal must exploit a glaring weakness Nottingham Forest have when they play Ange Postecoglou’s side on Saturday.

The Gunners host Forest at the Emirates, looking to bounce back from their disappointing defeat to Liverpool before the international break.

Postecoglou has replaced Nuno Espirito Santo in the hot seat at the East Midlands club this week, and the Australian’s adventurous style of play should suit Mikel Arteta’s team.

However, it’s a pre-existing issue that Forest have struggled with this season that the North Londoners should be looking to expose more than anything else.

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Arsenal must expose Nottingham Forest’s vulnerability in the air

Forest were an effective defensive team last season under Espirito Santo.

However, despite boasting a physical centre-back partnership in Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic, the Europa League side have struggled to deal with balls in the air into their box this campaign.

Across the first three matches, Forest have conceded more headed shots than anyone else in the Premier League.

Allowing their opponents to take four headed shots against them per 90 minutes thus far this term, this has to be an area Arsenal look to exploit on Saturday.

If Postecoglou doesn’t implement his aggressive high line from the outset, and instead merely continues to use Espirito Santo’s low block, then the Gunners will need a way of breaking this down.

Instead of looking to play intricate passing football, these numbers would suggest that Arteta should instruct his team to put several crosses in from wide areas and flood the box with as many players as possible.

This approach could help Arsenal unlock the game and ultimately secure all three points.

Mikel Merino could start for Arsenal against Nottingham Forest

Mikel Merino scored a hat-trick for Spain against Turkey during the international break.

The Euro 2024 winner continues to be a goal threat from midfield, and his skillset could be extremely valuable against Forest.

While Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard are likely to be deployed together as the midfield trio, Arteta should throw a curveball and start Merino instead.

Exceptional in the air, the Spaniard is the player in Arteta’s squad who can exploit Forest’s vulnerability in this area most effectively.

Instructing Merino to crash the box with late runs into dangerous areas could be Arsenal’s best avenue to opening Forest up and getting the early goal they need, which will allow them to control the game.