Even if one of Arsenal’s revamped systems ran aground, the one everybody had come to see turned out to be in decent working order. If this season is to be an enervating exercise in keeping pace with Manchester City then they got the first part more or less right, beating Nottingham Forest while playing enough of the hits to suggest their star turns are back with renewed appetite.
Bukayo Saka is certainly ready to improve on last term’s showing judging by the exquisite finish that put a rejigged Arsenal two up and, coming shortly after Eddie Nketiah’s opener, ultimately won them the game. He looked tired towards the end of 2022-23 but this was some way to turn over a new leaf, shrugging off Orel Mangala to bend a vicious 22-yard finish around Matt Turner and in. William Saliba helped create the chance by winning possession in Forest’s left-back position and the one sour note for Mikel Arteta will be that Arsenal failed to maintain that level of intensity in the second period, Taiwo Awoniyi scoring from nowhere and subjecting them to a tense finale.
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