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2023/24 English Premier League
Matchday 1
Arsenal v Nottingham Forest
Emirates Stadium
London, England
Saturday, 12 August 2023
Kick-off is at 13h30
Arsenal will be hoping to get off to another flying start this season when they host Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, August 12.
The Gunners won their opening five games of the 2022-23 campaign and went on to occupy top spot for 248 days before losing out on the
Premier League title to Manchester City.
MIkel Arteta's side were beaten just once in their first 19 matches, but a poor run-in saw them drop 15 points from their final nine fixtures as City took advantage to retain their crown.
The north Londoners got their revenge as they defeated the Citizens 4-1 on penalties on August 6 to lift the Community Shield after the curtain-raiser to the new season finished 1-1.
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Forest survived on their return to the top tier of English football, although they suffered some heavy defeats along the way, including a 5-0 mauling at the hands of Arsenal in the corresponding fixture last term.
However, Steve Cooper's side picked up eight points from their final four outings to finish four points above the relegation zone in 16th place.
The Reds will need to improve defensively though, after shipping 68 goals in their 38 games - the joint-fourth highest in the league.
Declan Rice will be under intense scrutiny this season as he looks to live up to his billing as the best defensive midfielder in England after becoming the Gunners' record signing when they paid West Ham £105million to acquire his services in July. The England international racked up 245 appearances across all competitions for the Hammers after graduating from their academy in 2016 and led them to the Europa Conference League title in his final season at the London Stadium.
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Cooper will be hoping for more luck on the injury front this time around after numerous first-team players spent parts of 2022-23 on the treatment table. Taiwo Awoniyi was one of those, although he still managed 10 goals and will be keen to push on this season in a bid to get the Reds pushing higher up the table.
Arteta admitted winning the Community Shield could raise expectations, although he felt the achievement will give his players a lift going into the new campaign.
"I don't know [if this result will raise expectations too high]. I just wanted to grab that trophy as quickly as possible and then we can think about the next," the Spaniard said after the clash at Wembley.
"But we know it's football, you win a trophy today, but tomorrow you have to be training, you have to prepare for the Nottingham Forest game in the right way. It will be a very different game to this, a very difficult one as well and we know that we have to go day-by-day.
"This is great, it lifts us, the spirit, the belief and everything, we just want to play better and win games. That's what we have to do."
Forest gave a tough opening month which also sees them take on Manchester United and Chelsea, but Cooper is embracing the challenge and believes it will motivate his players.
"Welcome back to the Premier League," Cooper jokingly told TalkSPORT. "You look at it in two ways. I mean, first of all, we'll take it game by game. It's look at the first block of games and who we have to play, but we've got to take it game by game.
"What we've got to do more than anything is have belief in achieving in every single game because if we don't believe, then nobody else is going to. So you can look at all of these things in two ways.
"You can look at it with fear or you could look at it with ambition and motivation to try and do something. Maybe [something] that's not expected on a particular day. And that's the brilliance of sport, isn't it?"
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Arsenal - 4
Forest - 1
Draws - 0
Matchday 1 fixtures:
Friday, August 11
21h00: Burnley v Manchester City
Saturday, August 12
13h30: Arsenal v Nottingham Forest
16h00: Bournemouth v West Ham United
16h00: Brighton & Hove Albion v Luton Town
16h00: Everton v Fulham
16h00: Sheffield United v Crystal Palace
18h30: Newcastle United v Aston Villa
Sunday, August 13
15h00: Brentford v Tottenham Hotspur
17h30: Chelsea v Liverpool
Monday, August 14
21h00: Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers
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