FA Premier League
ARSENAL 5 (Martinelli 5, Nelson 49, 52, Partey 57, Odegaard 78)
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0

WELL that was easy. Arsenal hardly needed to get out of first gear at the Emirates this afternoon (Sunday) as Nottingham Forest were ripped apart, a week after they had been surprise winners over Liverpool.

The Gunners settled for five but in truth they could have claimed double figures in one of the most one-sided matches you will see all season.

Forest came up from the Champonship last season with the help of several loan players but most of those are now gone and the visiting team has been cobbled together with players who didn’t quite fit in elsewhere, and it really shows. Within five minutes, Arsenal were ahead.

With no sign of a hangover from the defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League on Thursday, Gabriel Martinelli stole in and stooped low to head in Bukayo Saka’s centre to open the scoringIn those first minutes, Saka might have claimed three or four assists had Arsenal’s finishing been more efficient. It was a blow to see him limp off halfway through the first half, but this also gave Reiss Nelson a rare chance to feature in the lion’s share of a Premier League match and it was clear he was ready to seize the opportunity.

While the match meandered to half time, Mikel Arteta’s team came out from the break with all guns blazing and Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Jesus combined to unlock the Forest defence for Nelson to score. He calmly cut inside a defender and after being foiled by Dean Henderson in goal for the away side, he punched home the rebound.

He had his second and Arsenal’s third just minutes when Odegaard showed great power to hold off a defender before sliding the ball to Jesus whose cross was clipped in by Nelson.

After a year in the Netherlands with Feyernoord some might have written off Nelson’s chances of breaking into the set-up at the Emirates but he looks leaner and keener, and the wide grin on his face said it all. He even kissed the badge.

It was hard to recall Forest ever really worrying Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale in the second half; he had made one to two saves in the first, the best of which saved defender Gabriel’s blushes after he haphazardly passed straight to Jesse Lingard. Those kind of lapses will be and have been punished by better teams.

A Thomas Partey thunderbolt from the edge of the box and Martin Odegaard’s smart finish from a top spot put the extra goals on the scoreboard, at which stage a boxing umpire would’ve stopped the fight.

ARSENAL: Ramsdale, White, Tomiyasu (Cedric 63), Gabriel, Saliba (Tierney 76), Partey, Xhaka (Nketiah 76), Odegaard, Saka (Nelson 27), Martinelli (Vieira 63), Jesus,
SUBS  NOT USED: Hein, Holding, Sambi Lokonga, Marquinhos

NOTTINGHAM FOREST: Henderson, Aurier, Lodi (Williams 64), McKenna, Cook, Yates, Freuler, Kouyate (O’Brien 81), Lingard (Dennis 56), Gibbs-White (Johnson 56), Awoniyi (Worrall 64)
SUBS NOT USED: Boly, Hennessey, Johnson, Mangala, Surridge