Arsenal vs. Nottingham Forest Betting Tips: Back Xhaka to be carded and hit the target on Sunday

Two Premier League matches take place on Sunday, with Arsenal hosting Nottingham Forest in the 2pm kick-off. These two sides have had contrasting starts to their league campaign and we’ve picked our best bets for the game from the Emirates.

Arsenal were defeated 2-0 by Ruud van Nisterooy’s PSV Eindhoven on Thursday evening and will need to get back to winning ways immediately if they wish to keep their status at the top of the Premier League table. The Gunners dropped points at Southampton last weekend but have won five out of five in front of their own fans in 2022/2023.

Steve Cooper will have been delighted with his team's 1-0 win over Liverpool last weekend and will hope that can be a springboard to kickstart their campaign. The congested nature of the bottom half of the table means that Forest sit bottom, however they are just four points behind 12th. After a mammoth 9/1 victory against Liverpool, Cooper's men can be backed at an even bigger price at 11/1, for those who fancy another upset this weekend.

Both our selections on Sunday feature players picking up a card and the first of those is Nottingham Forest’s Serge Aurier. Unibet are the best priced at the time of writing with 4/1 on show for Aurier, who should start the game at right-back for the visitors.This should mean that the direct opponent for Aurier will be Gabriel Martinelli. The Brazilian has been a handful for defenders this season and has drawn an average of 1.5 fouls per game this season, only second to Gabriel Jesus in the Arsenal squad when looking at this metric.

I like the angle here of a former Spurs player having a bit more bite when it comes to taking on the Gunner and looking back at Aurier’s record against Arsenal, he has faced them four times and been booked in two of those. The 29-year-old has only started three matches for Forest this season and has been shown one yellow in that period. 4/1 isn’t the most eye-watering of prices in the ‘to be carded’ market but is one we think has more legs when going up against his former rivals.

Granit Xhaka’s card collecting has been a prominent feature of his Arsenal career and was once again on show in the Europa League on Thursday as he picked up his third in the group stage, meaning he will miss Matchday 6. Xhaka also has two bookings in the league this season and I’m surprised to see 7/2 on show for him to be carded against Forest on Sunday.

The Swiss international has scored as many goals in the top-fight this campaign as Mohamed Salah (3), and after a rough time over the past few years, he is now producing some of his best football with the fans fully behind him. This term Xhaka has taken up a new role in a very much a 4-1-4-1 system which leaves Thomas Partey as the only holding midfielder. When Arsenal have the ball Zinchenko effectively becomes a central midfielder allowing Granit Xhaka to become front of a front-five and cause a bit of chaos in the attacking department. With this new fluid role, he is a lot higher up the pitch than in previous season’s and has the license to arrive in the box late and let off shots. In total, Xhaka has recorded six shots on target in his last seven starts in all competitions and by combining him to be carded and have a shot on target against Forest, 10/1 is available through the Paddy Power Bet Builder.