Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates can’t wait to face Arsenal after helping his team beat Liverpool at the weekend.

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 22: Dean Henderson and Ryan Yates of Nottingham Forest celebrate following the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool FC at City Ground on October 22, 2022 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 22: Dean Henderson and Ryan Yates of Nottingham Forest celebrate following the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool FC at City Ground on October 22, 2022 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Nottingham Forest captain Ryan Yates was excited to play Arsenal before he watched Arsenal struggle against Southampton so he must be positively giddy now.

Against Liverpool, Taiwo Awoniyi’s 55th minute goal on Saturday was enough to take all three points and resign Jurgen Klopp’s side to their third defeat of the season with only 11 games played.

The result, however, was still not enough to lift Forest off the bottom of the table where they find themselves rooted below Wolves thanks to a -15 goal difference.

“We’d like it to come quicker,” Yates said about their next Premier League game against Arsenal.

“We’ll be underdogs again at the Emirates on Sunday but inside the dressing room we feel we’re more than a match for them.

“We had to go back to basics [against Liverpool].

“The main thing was matching Liverpool’s intensity. They had injuries to key players so we thought, “Why not?”

“Seeing their line-up gave us a little boost. We’d had an extra day’s rest from the midweek fixtures and they aren’t in the best moment.

“Sometimes we dip in the first 10 minutes of the second half. We focused massively on not doing that again — this time we scored.”

Mikel Arteta has only faced Nottingham Forest once as manager, losing in the third round of the FA Cup at the start of the year.

At the Emirates, Arsenal have won their last eight Premier League games at home and have won 18 of their last 24 in north London, drawing two and losing four.