Nuno’s brutal honesty as he reveals he changed his tactics due to lack of Arsenal threat | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo made it very clear he felt he could change his tactics against Arsenal on Wednesday night because of their lack of a striker.

The Gunners have an awful injury crisis at the moment, with all four of Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli out with long-term problems all at the same time.

This has led to Mikel Arteta having to resort to desperate measures, with the latest experiment being midfielder Mikel Merino playing as the team’s main centre-forward.

Merino did well to come off the bench to score a brace for Arsenal in their recent win over Leicester City, but overall it seems it’s not something that concerned Nuno.

Nuno Espirito Santo during Nottingham Forest’s draw with Arsenal (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

See below as the Forest boss explained to Martin Keown why he felt he could move from a back five to a back four for the visit of Arsenal…

Nuno has done a great job with Forest this season, putting the team in contention for a surprise top four finish, and tonight was another well-earned point.

How do Arsenal solve their striker problem?

Arsenal are surely out of the Premier League title race now after taking just one point from their last two games, while Liverpool have enjoyed back-to-back wins.

Still, the north London giants will still need to find a way to sort out their attack as they also have the Champions League to play for.

It remains to be seen if Arteta will continue with Merino as his central striker, or if he might experiment with something else.

The truth is, there aren’t really any good options for AFC with so many players out injured, so they just have to wait and hope for the best until Saka and Martinelli return.

It will also be an important summer for Arsenal as they surely need to spend more to avoid anything like this happening again next season.