Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal. Carabao Cup Round 3.
The City GroundAttendance28,567.
Tuesday 20 September 2016 19:22, UK
Nicklas Bendtner could make his first start for Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup third-round tie against his former club Arsenal.
The 28-year-old Denmark striker, who joined Forest on a two-year deal this summer, is in contention to feature against the Gunners, two years after he left the club to join Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg.
The Sky Bet Championship side will be without injured trio Damien Perquis, Britt Assombalonga and Thomas Lam.
Arsene Wenger is likely to make a number of changes to his Arsenal side for Tuesday's trip to the City Ground, with defender Gabriel in contention to make his first appearance of the season.
The Brazilian has been sidelined with an ankle injury but Wenger believes he could play some part at the City Ground, although Olivier Giroud (toe) and Aaron Ramsey (hamstring) are still missing.
The likes of David Ospina, Rob Holding, Kieran Gibbs, Lucas Perez and Chuba Akpom will be hopeful of involvement but Per Mertesacker, Danny Welbeck and Carl Jenkinson (all knee) are out.
Opta stats
Nottingham Forest and Arsenal have met twice before in the League Cup. Both encounters were 2-0 Quarter-Final home victories for the Gunners, in 1987 and 1993 - with Arsenal going on to win the trophy both times.
Arsenal have won their last three matches against Nottingham Forest, beating them in the Premier League in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
In fact, Forest have only won one of the last 13 meetings against Arsenal in all competitions (D4 L8).
Arsenal were eliminated when they last faced Championship opponents in the League Cup, losing 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday last season.
Forest have lost their last nine League Cup games against Premier League opponents (as a lower ranked side), last beating Man City in December 1993.
Charlie's prediction
Well we know Forest score a lot of goals but they also concede plenty. Nicklas Bendtner will be available and I wouldn't be surprised if the story unfolded that he scores.
I would image Olivier Giroud will be fit and then there's Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka needing game time, while I'd also like to see the young lad Jeff Reine-Adelaide play as I think he'll be a big star. You've also got Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy to come in, so I'm not giving them any excuses as this should be a good win.
Charlie predicts: Nottingham Forest 1-3 Arsenal, Giroud to score first (28/1 with Sky Bet)
