Nottingham

Pat Riddell
Fan writer

Image source, Getty Images

The story of this Premier League season is not new managers, but injuries.

Manchester City have famously struggled without Ballon d'Or winner Rodri while Liverpool are the only side to keep plugging away at the top of the table, despite the loss of Alisson and now Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Arsenal's form stuttered in recent weeks without Martin Odegaard - their captain as key to the Gunners' title ambitions as Mohamed Salah is to Liverpool's. And it was the former who made Nottingham Forest pay at the weekend.

The Reds, of course, were missing both Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson - the creative drive and both a significant part of Forest's success this season. Nuno Espirito Santo's side have coped with the loss of both Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare this campaign, but the midfield is clearly a different proposition with all four missing.

There is no shame in losing to Arsenal, but the timing is clearly unfortunate - last month was perhaps a better time to face them.

More pertinent, though, is the double-whammy of losing our two most creative players while conceding three goals for the second game in a row.

This run of fixtures was always going to test us and you cannot read too much into one result or performance. But with two challenging games away in Manchester to come, plus Aston Villa and Tottenham at home, it will be interesting to see the team's response.

Nuno's squad is big and talented enough not to rely on the same starting XI every week, but as the season goes on there will be more and more demands.

The club's fitness and conditioning team have proved their worth so far - particularly given our difficulties just a few years ago. We just have to hope that injured players are quick to return and the Reds can maintain some momentum.

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