Elliot Anderson: 'We’ve got the players in the changing room to do what he wants to do'
TRUST THE PROCESS: New Nottingham Forest manager Ange Postecoglou asks his side to trust in him.
There was an air of danger about this fixture before a ball was kicked. The return of Ange Postecoglou to Premier League football, just 95 days after his sudden dismissal from Tottenham, threatened to turn Arsenal’s homecoming into an awkward family reunion. The Australian walked into the Emirates tasked with lifting Nottingham Forest after Nuno Espírito Santo’s departure, inheriting a side now braced for the demands of “Ange-ball.”
But any suggestion that Postecoglou might spoil Mikel Arteta’s party was ruthlessly dismissed. Arsenal, sparkling in their reinvention, paraded five of their new signings in the starting XI. They did not just win; they dazzled. Martín Zubimendi struck twice, Viktor Gyökeres added the other, and Noni Madueke ran riot on the flank. Forest were well beaten long before the scoreboard confirmed it.
“It’s been very easy to fit into the team,” Gyökeres said afterwards, reflecting on his third goal in two home games. “It takes some time to adapt to the style of play, but yeah, it’s been a good start and we keep going. For me, playing with people like this is amazing. You just have to be in the right positions and you’ll get chances.”
The Swede is right: chances flowed. Arsenal’s attack had a frightening fluency, a sense that Arteta’s tinkering of recent seasons has finally given way to something bolder. Where once there was a nagging question about the absence of a top-class striker, Gyökeres has arrived to silence the chatter.
When Kai Havertz was injured last month, the new forward might have been bedded in gradually. Instead, he was thrown in from the first whistle and has looked all the better for it. “Of course, you always want minutes,” he shrugged. “You get into it easier when you play more. You want to perform and show that you deserve to be on the pitch.”
The star of the day, however, was Zubimendi. Long coveted by Arsenal, his summer move from Spain has given Arteta’s midfield a new balance: bite in defence and precision in possession. The two goals were bonuses, one a drive that whistled into the top corner, the other a cool header at the end of a one-touch move. “I’m happy for the team, for myself, for being able to contribute with those two goals,” he said, almost modest to a fault.
“We’re very happy with how the win came about, above all because we didn’t give up many chances. That gives us hope to be even more excited for what’s to come next week.”
That “next week” means Europe. Arsenal’s Champions League campaign begins in Bilbao on Tuesday, a trip laced with intrigue given Zubimendi’s Basque roots. Last season’s semi-final appearance whetted appetites; now the question is whether Gyökeres and the other summer recruits can provide the final push. Arteta, who has spent heavily but carefully, might at last have the depth to challenge both at home and abroad.
For Forest, the road ahead looks less glamorous. Postecoglou was hired to steady a club that, under Nuno, reached Europe for the first time in three decades. He brings charisma and conviction, but Saturday’s defeat underlined the gulf in class between where Forest are and where they want to be.
Midfielder Elliot Anderson was frank about the week of upheaval. “We haven’t had much work on the training pitch but we’ve got to do the same things out there, fight for the team, fight for the badge,” he said. “He (Postecoglou) just said in the changing room, just to trust him and we’ll get back on the training pitch and we’ll look at things and ideas we can improve on. We’re all focused.”
Belief is the easy part; points are harder. Forest travel to Swansea in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday before beginning their manager’s Europa League defence next week, the trophy he won with Spurs before his abrupt exit. For now, the Australian cuts a figure trying to sell faith to a dressing room still adjusting. Anderson was insistent: “We’ve got the players in the changing room to do what he wants to do. So we’ll all just need to believe in it and put things into practice. We’re positive it will pay off.”
Such optimism is admirable but will be tested. This is no gentle easing-in: away days pile up, the table takes shape early, and the Premier League does not grant long honeymoons. Tottenham flirted with relegation, losing over 20 times in their trophy-winning season after all. If Postecoglou’s brand of pressing and possession can take hold quickly, Forest might steady themselves. If not, the chants Arsenal fans gleefully aimed at their former rival ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ and ‘are you Tottenham in disguise’ will echo louder.
For Arsenal, rejuvenated after defeat at Liverpool before the international break, the mood is different entirely. Two home games, two statement wins, a new spine bedding in with startling ease. “It’s two fun games to look forward to,” Gyökeres said of Bilbao and Manchester City. Fun for Arsenal, perhaps, but for their opponents the sense of menace is real. Arteta’s team look built not just to compete, but to conquer.
: Raya 7, Timber 6, Mosquera 7, Gabriel 8, Calafiori 7 (Lewis-Skelly 68), Zubimendi 8, Merino 6, Odegaard 5 (Nwaneri 18), Eze 7 (Trossard 78), Madueke 8 (Martinelli 78), Gyokeres 6 (Rice, 68).
: Arrizabalaga, Hincapie, White, Dowman
: Sels 6, Williams 5, Murillo 5 (Savona 37), Milenkovic 6, Morato 4, Anderson 6, Sangare 6 (Yates 73), Gibbs-White 6 (McAtee, 73), Ndoye 5, Hudson-Odoi 5 (Kalimuendo 60), Wood 5 (Bakwa 60).
: Victor, Hutchinson, Boly, Luiz.
: Darren England 3
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