FA Premier League
ARSENAL 2 (Nketiah 26, Saka 32)
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 (Awoniyi 82)

SO, what will the next 37 games hold for Arsenal: a repeat of last season’s thrilling rollercoaster ride and a return to Champions League football, or a side now burdened by the pressure to do it all over again?

Expectations have been raised, which is why this tepid beginning to a fresh campaign – with the Gunners no longer enjoying a points advantage over most of their old rivals – felt slightly concerning.

There was no need for what seemed like a straightforward home victory against a club which had bee threatened with relegation last term to descend into a ruffled final ten minutes in which Arsenal wee ultimately glad to hear the final whistle.

Mikel Arteta had smashed up his normal formation to ensure there were places for new signings Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz in the line-up, but the 3-5-2 set-up, in the main, only served to bypass Havertz and the normally far more influential captain Martin Odegaard. It will need perfecting if the system is deployed against any of the teams targeting top six places.

Gabriel, who had formed such an effective partnership with William Saliba in the centre of defence during Arsenal’s title bid, dropped out and it is a surprise to see him linked with a move to the Saudi league.

As it happens, Arsenal could have probably lined up in various different ways and found a way to win. Brennan Johnson had scooped a shot over the bar for Forest when through on goal but Arsenal more or less had a hold on the game from the outset.

The breakthroughs came via the wings. First Gabriel Martinelli, down the left side, had the trickery to unlock the defence before slipping a pass to Eddie Nketiah.

The striker, deputising once agains for the injured Gabriel Jesus. turned away from a defender and shot low. His effort bounced off Job Worrall to deceive the visitors’ new keeper, Matt Turner, signed from Arsenal last week and now with a chance of regular first team action in the Premier League.

The second was more spectacular. Bukayo Saka, a constant threat, stepped inside from the right wing and curled a peach of a strike into the far corner. Opponents still can’t work out whether he will turn left or right.

But there was a lack of killer instinct today, and it is something Arsenal need to find to avoid dropping points this year. They could have gone three or four up but there was an unwarranted complacency about whether they really need to score more.

It was if Arteta wanted to show what a mature team his ranks had become by controlling the second half with continental passing.

And yet the very opposite happened: the Gunners looked naive as Forest were able to pull one back with ten minutes to go after breaking from what was an Arsenal corner. Substitute Taiwo Awoniyi was the beneficiary.

The away team tried to muter up an equaliser inside a clearly frustrated Emirates, and Gabriel was summoned from the bench to tighten things up. Timber had already hobbled off on his debut.

A header flashed wide, a shot fired off target but Forest could not thrive further from the mild panic. In fact, Arsenal probably should have added to their score if Havertz had displayed quicker speed and thinking on the counter attack.

Arteta said afterwards: “It’s going to be very difficult to dominate games for 100 minutes, but it is why we allowsed them to get some grip of the game,  Tou cannot change it, now you have to be so good at dealing with that situation and running the clock down and earning the points.

“Rhe team have done that really well but we have to be more ruthless and more critical of ourselves to be more pushy and kill the games.”a

ARSENAL: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Timber (Tomiyasu 50), Partey, Rice, Havertz, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli (Gabriel 86), Nketiah (Trossard 73)
SUBS NOT USED: Hein, Jorginho, Kiwior, Nelson, Smith Rowe, Vieira

NOTTINGHAM FOREST: Turner, Boly, Worrall (Wood 90), McKenna, Aurier, Yates, Mangala (Kouyate 90), Aina (Williams 71), Danilo (Awoniyi 71), Johnson, Gibbs-White
SUBS NOT USED: Freuler, Horvath, Niakhate, O’Brien