26 February 2025
Nott’m Forest 0 Arsenal 0
Nottingham Forest welcomed Arsenal to the City Ground for a crunch match for both teams. Mikel Arteta’s side can ill-afford to drop any points if they still want to believe they are in a title race. The reality is, there isn’t one, this is Liverpool’s trophy to lose. Nuno Espirito Santo’s had the more pressing concern of securing a top four spot and Champions League football with it.
Arsenal’s fanbase is a must-watch in between matches. Even the likes of Paul Merson will shout from the rooftops how injuries have cost them a shot at the title this campaign. The reality is, even when they had a fully fit squad, they were nine points behind Liverpool. Everyone gets injuries but one club more than any other will use it to feed their victim mentality.
Injuries are a part of football. This is why clubs are required to register a squad of twenty-five players. The Gunners just do not have the depth of quality needed to win major silverware. That is down to one person, Mikel Arteta. It is something he should be addressing considering the injury records of some of their key players. Until they do, they will always be the bridesmaid but never the bride.
Both sides looked to get forward from the off. Rice made a good run into the box but with no other options around him, he tried to get a shot away but it was easily blocked. Forest’s transitions from defence into attack were opening up the visitors’ midfield. Gibbs-White was pulling the strings early on, feeding the ball into Wood up top.
Gabriel was tracking the dangerous striker well, getting blocks in to deny him shots at goal. The Gunners’ centre-backs were going to be pivotal to any hopes of getting something from this game. As Arsenal came forward, Calafiori dropped his shoulder to lose Dominguez before curling a shot towards the far corner. His effort came crashing back off the post into the arms of Sels.
Try as they might, the hosts were struggling to create any clear-cut chances. They had failed to test Raya in the Arsenal goal as the two sides headed in at the break. Aside from Calafiori’s effort, Arteta’s side were having the same problems. The two teams seemed to be cancelling each other out at the City Ground, something the visitors needed to address more than Forest.
Arsenal forced a corner after the break and Merino attacked Rice’s cross to get a header off but Sels reacted well to beat it away. The midfielder had made a habit of grabbing some important goals of late for The Gunners and almost came to their rescue once again. It was an early warning for the hosts that they could not afford to switch off for a moment in this match.
Forest came bursting forward and the influential Gibbs-White fed the ball into Wood in the box. He fired off a left-footed shot but Raya made a good save to keep his side on level terms. It was the strikers first real glimpse of goal in the game but he will feel he should have done better, trying to beat the keeper at his near post from the angle made the save that much easier.
Zinchenko looked to spring the Forest offside trap as he received the ball in a wide position in the box. He squared it to Odegaard, whose shot had Sels beaten but Murillo did brilliantly to block it on the line. As it rebounded to the Norwegian, the Forest keeper made another good save to deny the visitors as it deflected wide of the target, only to then see the assistant raise their flag.
A stray pass from Saliba gifted the ball to Anderson out wide. With acres of space in front of him, he motored down the left wing. The midfielder clipped a cross into the back post, trying to find Hudson-Odoi, but despite the player throwing himself at it he just could not get on the end of it. Another chance went begging for the hosts.
Neither side seemed able to break the deadlock at the City Ground. While a point would suffice for the hosts in their goal of keeping themselves in the top four, this would be another two points dropped for The Gunners. Aside from having no recognised striker, they were really lacking creativity in the final third and it was costing them dearly.
Despite having thirteen shots during the course of the game, Arteta’s side had only managed one on target. This is not a new problem, this was the case before the injuries to Jesus and Havertz. Something just does not seem right with this Arsenal team, almost as if they had run their course as genuine title contenders.
Arteta can wax lyrical about how he feels his side were the better team but he is only deluding himself, anyone with the gift of sight can see they have major issues. Possession means nothing if there is no penetration to your play. This side will drop plenty more points between now and the end of the season and finishing in second spot could be a genuine challenge.
Some pundits have questioned whether we have already seen peak Arsenal under Arteta and question whether this team will ever be able to get back to that place. They are now closer to tenth spot than they are to leaders Liverpool. This title race is all but done and having spent zero days at the top this season, you wonder whether The Gunners were ever in one.
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