Why facing Arsenal on Nottingham Forest debut is Ange Postecoglou's worst nightmare
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Credit: Manh Tung, Breaking Media & IMAGO.
Oliver Walton
Wed 10 September 2025 16:00, UK
Ange Postecoglou will not be looking forward to his first game as Nottingham Forest boss as he takes his new team to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal this weekend.
Ange Postecoglou was appointed as Nottingham Forest‘s new manager, and he has some work to do to prove his critics wrong.
Many Nottingham Forest fans aren’t happy about Postecoglou’s appointment.
Postecoglou was sacked from his post at Tottenham in June, despite leading them to Europa League glory, following a dismal domestic campaign that saw them finish 17th in the Premier League.
His tactics have been criticised for their high-intensity nature, and so has his stubbornness in not changing despite Tottenham’s struggles, but the Australian boss always stuck by his principles and insisted: “it’s who we are and who we will be for as long as I am here,” when questioned.
Forest played with a deep defensive line and on the counter-attack while Espirito Santo was in charge, but that is now all set to change, and Postecoglou faces a nightmare first game in charge on Saturday based off his history against former North London rival boss Arteta.
Ange Postecoglou will be dreading his trip to the Emirates for a specific reason.
Credit IMAGO.
Postecoglou will be excited about what the future holds for him at the City Ground, but his first test as boss will be a tough one for a number of reasons, not least because Arsenal are gunning for the Premier League title this season.
The Australian boss will mainly be fearing the worst right now because he has a terrible record when managing against Arteta, with the Arsenal boss coming out on top in three of their four previous face-offs while he was at Tottenham.
DateResult24 September 2023Arsenal 2-2 Spurs28 April 2024Spurs 2-3 Arsenal15 September 2024Spurs 0-1 Arsenal15 January 2025Arsenal 2-1 SpursAnge Postecoglou’s managerial record vs Mikel Arteta
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That is not the only statistic that points towards a home win at the Emirates Stadium, as Forest have not beaten Arsenal away from home since 1989, when Brian Clough was in charge of the East Midlands outfit.
Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou will face off on Saturday.
Credit: IMAGO.
Only Fulham (12 games) are on a longer run without a clean sheet away from home in the Premier League than Forest (11 games), while Arsenal only lost twice in the league at the Emirates last term, and thrashed Leeds 5-0 last time out on home turf.
Those stats certainly do not make great reading for Postecoglou ahead of his Forest bow, but he can take solace from one fact that has him ahead of Arteta.
Postecoglou struggled domestically in his second season at Tottenham, but his Europa League triumph was born out of a successful first campaign in 2023-24 when he led them to a fifth-placed finish in the league.
He has history of starting well at a new club in England, and Postecoglou actually won five more points in his first season at Spurs than Arteta did in his first full season with Arsenal, proving that he has one over the Spanish boss.
The 60-year-old will hope to continue that trend at Forest this time around, but he faces a tough test to implement his tactics due to such a drastic change compared to Nuno.
Forest’s recent record on the road has not been too bad, with just one loss and four wins in their last seven away games in all competitions, but their fans would surely take a point against Arsenal to kick off Postecoglou’s tenure as they mean to go on.