The Gunners’ stars continue to chase Liverpool on the rankings after a somewhat difficult victory at the City Ground. To achieve this victory, Arsenal had great contributions from three stars
Gabriel Magalhaes
The Brazilian centre-back is showing impressive performances in recent clashes. In the match against Crystal Palace – the match in which he contributed to the first two goals, Gabriel made the fans quite uneasy when he had to leave the field in the second half.
However, the former Lille player still ensures his fitness to participate in the match against Nottingham Forest. Gabriel created good cover for Oleksandr Zinchenko, allowing the Ukrainian player to freely move and control the ball.
Statistics show that Gabriel made the second most passes (101) after Zinchenko. On the other hand, he also completed his defensive duties well.
Awoniyi’s equalizer was a surprising situation, but overall the Brazilian star still knew how to control the match and proved important to Mikel Arteta’s system.
Oleksandr Zinchenko
The former Man City star received a lot of criticism from fans, especially during a series of bad matches when the team lost three consecutive matches before the winter break. However, Zinchenko came back strongly and continued to show impressive ball movement ability as a virtual defender.
Against Forest, the Ukrainian player showed his best form: controlling the ball and determining the pace of the match for Arsenal.
As mentioned, Zinchenko created 107 passes – the most on the field and had 1 assist. The 27-year-old star’s quick thinking with the throw-in helped Jesus score the opening goal, which was just what the team needed to break the deadlock.
This once again shows the importance of Zinchenko and the consistency of Mikel Arteta. Although the media raised many question marks about his player’s performance, the Gunners captain still put all his faith in Zinchenko.
Gabriel Jesus
The Brazilian opened the scoring with a smart finish and also assisted Bukayo Saka’s second goal with a well-placed pass on the counter-attack, similar to how he did with Leandro Trossard ten days ago.
According to Opta, Jesus had 6 shots throughout the match, equal to Saka. He leads the team with shots on target, level with Forest’s Awoniyi (2) and has one shot blocked. Besides, the former Man City star also brought home 2 penalty kicks for Arsenal.
To date, no Premier League player has both scored and assisted in more matches this season than Jesus (4 times).
After the match, Arteta told TNT about the importance of Jesus: “We really need him at his best. I had a great feeling before the match. He had a knee problem but he was fine. expressed his desire to go out on the field to help everyone.”