When Ange Postecoglou dreamed it beforehand, he imagined a result to kickstart his Nottingham Forest tenure, silencing a group of opposition supporters that have long been against him in the process. The former Tottenham manager could scarcely have hand-picked a spicier debut assignment. Then reality intervened.
This Arsenal team are not easily pushed around. They give away next to nothing at the back. They crave control of the ball and the flow of the game. Their mission is to suffocate and punish and they made sure that Postecoglou’s return to north London was as uncomfortable as possible – and not only because of the predictable taunts he heard from the stands.
