Arsenal swatted aside Nottingham Forest on Saturday as the Premier League’s second-longest-serving manager bested a head coach who’d been in charge for only four days.

Here’s what we saw at the Emirates.

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 4: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + ‘DefCon’ points
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Salah pen, Slot on Isak + why Kerkez was subbed off
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Wissa + Strand Larsen injury latest, Woltemade goal
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Maresca on Palmer’s fitness, Pedro + Guiu’s absence
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Semenyo on pens + De Cuyper injury
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Emery on Villa’s lack of goals + Tielemans injury

MURILLO INJURY

Postecoglou had already lost one of last season’s first-choice back four over the international break, with Ola Aina (£5.0m) ruled out for three months.

A second member of that once-formidable rearguard, Murillo (£5.5m), limped off on Saturday, although not before remarkably hitting the defensive contribution (DefCon) threshold in just 33 minutes of action:

Above: Players involved at the Emirates who picked up DefCon points

This injury doesn’t sound as serious as Aina’s, at least.

“Yeah, it’s a knock. Obviously got a bit of a knock there. So, hoping it’s nothing too serious and hoping to be available for next week but I’ll just wait on that report.” – Ange Postecoglou on Murillo

We may get a further update before or after Wednesday’s EFL Cup tie with Swansea City.

A FIRST LOOK AT ANGE’S FOREST…. OR WAS IT A LAST LOOK AT NUNO’S?

There was much talk before Gameweek 4 about how a Postecoglou-led Forest side would look and which personnel he’d favour.

But as it turned out, he kept things pretty much as they had been under Nuno Espirito Santo for his first game in charge. His only alteration, Morato (£4.4m) in for Aina, was enforced, indeed.

Postecoglou cited a lack of training time with his new charges in the quote below. A cynic might also suggest he could pin a likely defeat at Arsenal on his predecessor’s tactics/personnel, rather than come unstuck when trying to make too many of his own preferred changes too soon.

“Well, not for this week anyway. Look, I mean, who knows whether it’s the right way or the wrong way but the players, they’re all away on international duty. The other players had the whole weekend off. They only got back in on Tuesday. So, you know, what they left, when they left the club to what they inherited was totally different. New face, new voices, new coaching and new training.

“And I just thought today I didn’t want to make too many changes to the line-up because I think it would have been unfair both on the existing players and on the new players to be thrown in such a difficult game.

“But I think we can put a line through that now. I think now we kind of understand that’s the first week and the first phase we can put to bed and now start looking ahead.” – Ange Postecoglou on being unable to make too many changes because of a lack of training time

So, then, expect things to perhaps start evolving from Gameweek 5. Before then, a Carabao Cup tie in Wales, where some of the summer signings will get more of a chance to impress.

“There are a lot of the new signings who haven’t really got the opportunity yet. Guys like Douglas Luiz and, you saw today, Dilane Bakwa, Kalimuendo, Jesus, McAtee, Hutchinson, Jair… [this was] Savona’s first game. There are a lot of players there who… the beauty of being in Europe and I guess the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night is that, along with training, we can actually beat in some match principles as well.

“So I think it’s kind of a good opportunity in this time between now and the next international break to integrate the new players but also start beating down some of our principles in terms of how we want to play.” – Ange Postecoglou

WHO IMPRESSED POSTECOGLOU?

There weren’t too many stand-outs for Forest. Dilane Bakwa (£6.0m) caught the eye when he came on, causing a few problems on the right wing. Dan Ndoye (£6.1m) switched flanks to accommodate his new teammate upon Bakwa’s introduction.

Bakwa and Elliot Anderson (£5.5m) – finally picking up those two DefCon points! – were two players namechecked by Postecoglou after full-time. The grizzled Aussie didn’t throw anyone under a bus, however.

“I thought he was brilliant and outstanding. Yeah, ability. We had to work really hard today, we didn’t have a lot of the ball, but every time he was on it, I thought he was unbelievable.” – Ange Postecoglou on Elliot Anderson

“I thought Dilane Bakwa, when he came on, was really exciting for his first game. I really like Dan Ndoye’s ability to cause the opposition problems. The kind of the bedrock of the team, guys like Milenkovic and Matty Sels. I thought Nico Williams, again, had a tough job today but I thought when he went to the left-hand side, did a really good job for us.

“So there’s plenty there and there’s no one I’m saying of, ‘Well, that was disappointing’, because like I said it’d just be unfair on the players. In any walk of life, if you have such a massive disruption and then you’re facing such a massive challenge straight away, all I could ask for today was effort and a bit of endeavour.” – Ange Postecoglou

Forest had just five efforts all game, amounting to just 0.20 Opta xG (0.37 with Statsbomb). Chris Wood (£7.6m) was at the heart of two of them, teeing up Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.5m) for Forest’s only first-half chance then bizarrely chesting the ball onto the bar after the break. He may be one of those nervously casting an eye over his shoulder, having been hooked after 59 minutes on Saturday.

ODEGAARD + SALIBA INJURY UPDATES

Despite training on Friday, William Saliba (£6.0m) missed out on Forest’s visit.

Martin Odegaard (£7.9m) meanwhile lasted just 18 minutes before he came off with a recurrence of his old shoulder injury.

Mikel Arteta wasn’t too concerned after full-time.

“Yes, very similar [injury]. I don’t know if it’s exactly the same place but it’s a very similar injury. He wasn’t comfortable continuing, he’s played two games with Norway, unfortunately he cannot carry on today. So we have to assess him with the doctors and see but I’m sure he will try his best to be fit for Tuesday.

“No, I don’t think that [he needs surgery]. I’m not an expert but they weren’t concerned at that level at all. The last time in a few days he was able to manage the pain especially as the injury wasn’t that bad. I don’t know the extent of two days but hopefully, hopefully.” – Mikel Arteta on Martin Odegaard

“He trained yesterday and he did the whole session and he was OK. I spoke to him afterwards and he said I think I need a few more days. The turnaround has been too quick for the extent of the injury so when a player says that, don’t push it. I think Mosquera was very, very good.” – Mikel Arteta on William Saliba

WHY RICE WAS BENCHED

With the Champions League about to get underway, we can expect more volatility with the leading clubs’ teamsheets.

Arteta’s rotation indeed started on Saturday, with Declan Rice (£6.5m) benched. Mikel Merino (£5.9m) started in his place.

“Mikel [Merino] comes back after scoring four goals in two games with a really high emotional state and I want to use that when a player is in that moment. I want to play him because he’s going to bring something different with the qualities that they have and Declan comes in and it will have an impact immediately or he’ll play the next game. That’s what we need to try to manage the best possible way.” – Mikel Arteta on Declan Rice’s benching

“The demands of the amount of games that the players have to play, they have to play 70 or 74 games throughout the season, it’s never been done. When the intensity goes that high, they are not going to be able to sustain that. So you need more players, the standards have raised, we need better players and there’s no secret.” – Mikel Arteta

MADUEKE IMPRESSES

Martin Zubimendi (£5.4m) was the unlikely two-goal hero on Saturday, with both goals – one a superb volley, the other a header – coming from set plays. Those were Arsenal’s fourth and fifth set-piece strikes of the season already.

Four goals is his best-ever league goal tally in a single season, so we’re not expecting the holding midfielder to be regularly hauling like he did against Forest.

Two more summer singings, full debutant Eberechi Eze (£7.5m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m), combined for the Gunners’ second goal of the game. Gyokeres also smacked the upright from a narrow angle.

But the star of the show was arguably Noni Madueke (£7.0m). A creative threat from both open play and corners, he carved out five chances for others – including the shot that Gyokeres struck the woodwork with. The England international was unlucky to blank.

“I think he has such a power, such a capacity to repeat efforts because to be able to do that physically, you have to have a different specimen, I think and he’s certainly that. But he’s very skilful, very unpredictable, he’s so willing to learn and he brings joy. I look at him and he’s always smiling, he’s always trying things. He gets one wrong, he goes again and that’s what I love about the creative players because you need that to be successful.” – Mikel Arteta on Noni Madueke

Above: Noni Madueke’s touch heatmap in Gameweek 4. His total of 13 penalty box touches was the second-highest of the Gameweek.