It was an afternoon of mixed emotions for Arsenals, who maintained their impressive start to the 2022/2023 English Premier League with a 5-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest at the Emirate Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners returned to the top of the Premier League table following the victory, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the London side who lost Bukayo Saka through injury in the first half.
Mikel Arteta’s side have now won nine home league games in a row – a run stretching back to the end of last season – and, after last weekend’s disappointing 1-1 draw at Southampton and a 2-0 Europa League loss at PSV in midweek, they came flying out of the traps back on their own patch: Saka teed up Gabriel Martinelli for the opening goal just five minutes in.
With just three weeks to go until the World Cup, the England star was forced off and replaced by Reiss Nelson. Arteta later said that it was “hopefully” just a knock.
The match which saw substitute Reiss Nelson score a double on Sunday, pushed the Gunners ahead of champion’s Manchester City with 31 points.
This will be the first time the Gunners have won by five goals since 2018.
Gabriel Martinelli gave the early opener in the first five minutes and the game went into half time with Arsenal only one goal ahead.
But with Saka out and Reiss Nelson replacing the winger in the second half, Nelson quickly tripled the scoreline in the 49th and 52nd minutes, followed by Thomas Partey’s 57th minute goal and Martin Odegaard’s finisher in the 78th minute.
Striker Gabriel Jesus gave Nelson the assists that led to his goals, while Nelson also gave the last assist of the match to captain Odegaard.
The Gunners are now two points ahead of City, who are second place with 29 points.
Nottingham Forest with the defeat remain in the relegation zone and are sitting in 20th place with nine points.
