Ipswich Town gets set to make their bid to extend their Premier League unbeaten run to four games when they travel to face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday afternoon.
Kieran McKenna’s men only managed to give Ruben Amorim a nightmare introduction to Manchester United last weekend before the Garibaldi gave up a 1-1 lead to lose 3-0 to Arsenal.
Despite notching up only an inferior goal difference to Arsenal the previous Sunday Nottingham Forest fans could have been forgiven for approaching the game with some hope; this was more or less snuffed out once the teams were named without Gibbs-White or Chris Wood.
Fans that traveled to the North London were not disappointed as they watched a beautiful header by Saka give Arsenal the initial lead before Thomas Partey equalized in style with his goal of the season contender and end the match with a cherry on the cake by a first Premier League goal by Ethan Nwaneri.
The two-week break seemed to arrive right on the brink for Forest following their previous drubbing by Newcastle United, however, with two consecutive losses for the first time this season Esperito Santo’s men have slipped down to seventh in the Premier League.
Just to get the invitation to be even competitive for the continental positions is still a dream for some of the team’s supporters, but apparently the last defensive discipline that had served Forest well in 22 PL games where Arsenal and Newcastle scored three or more goals each only in two encounters has also deserted them.
Kicking freshly relegated Championship teams while they are down has been a relative breeze for Forest in recent years, however, as the hosts have triumphed in their last four top-flight encounters against promoted opposition, or registered at least one draw in their last eight games against such foes.
At Portman Road last Sunday, an ex-Man United coach faced the new Red Devils manager. McKenna and Amorim saw Marcus Rashford score inside two minutes of the Portuguese's rule, but it wasn't the start of a Man United thrashing.
In fact, Ipswich held the Red Devils to only one point in Suffolk after former Arsenal and Chelsea player Omari Hutchinson tied the score before halftime with a beautiful curling drive that deflected wickedly off Noussair Mazraoui's head.
Earlier this month, Ipswich stunned Tottenham Hotspur and shook hands on a 1-1 draw with Leicester City, putting them on the verge of scrambling out of the danger zone. The stalemate against Amorim's squad saw them collect a decent fifth point for the last nine available.
McKenna's 18th-placed team is only separated from 17th-place Wolverhampton Wanderers by goal differential; an eight-game streak without a clean sheet hasn't helped the Tractor Boys in that area. However, the visitors have only failed to score in one of their seven away games this season.
The Tractor Boys haven't triumphed at the City Ground since 1999, finishing winless in their last 14 trips to the Tricky Trees' field. The last time Forest and Ipswich faced off in a competitive situation was in March 2019 (a 1-1 Championship stalemate at Portman Road).
Wood, an eight-goal striker, did make an appearance off the bench at the Emirates after being left out of the starting eleven due to his travel to and from New Zealand, but Gibbs-White, the creative center, was completely sidelined as his ankle injury from gameweek seven versus Chelsea worsened.
