Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium to start the 2023/24 Premier League season with victory.
The Gunners took some time to grow into the match and this gave Nottingham Forest the chance to pose the first attacking threat of the match when Brennan Johnson went through on goal but shot wide in the 11th minute.
But they started playing better around the 15th minute and got their opening goal in the 26th minute through Eddie Nketiah after Gabriel Martinelli’s breath footwork and skill on the left wing.
Six minutes later, star boy Bukayo Saka was played in by William Saliba. He beat his marker and sent a powerful shot that curled into the top corner past former teammate, Nottingham Forest’ goalkeeper Matt Turner.
Arsenal controlled the remainder of the half and went into the break leading 2-nil.
In the second half, Mikel Arteta’s team had chances to score more goals but failed to do so. Declan Rice came the closest to score for Arsenal but two of his shots were punched away by Turner.
It would be Nottingham Forest to get the only goal of the second half when they mounted a quick counterattack led by Anthony Elanga who crossed the ball to Taiwo Awoniyi in the 82nd minute to tap home.
Nottingham Forest mounted more pressure on Arsenal’s defence in the final minutes of the match but the Gunners held on to their lead and made sure they get all three points.
