Arsenal slogged to a 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest to retake the top spot among the legitimate teams in the Premier League. Manchester City are ahead in the table but they are not a legitimate team. They don’t count, as far as I’m concerned. There’s not much to be said about today’s contest. It wasn’t enjoyable but Arsenal head back to London with three points, two more than they took from the City Ground last season, and that’s all that matters in the end.
The opening 30 minutes were rather
dull. Arsenal had almost all of the ball but didn’t do much with it — one shot attempt, not on target. The best they managed was a goalmouth scramble from a corner, but Gabriel’s backheel deflected off Ezri Konsa en route. Forest had a halfway decent chance off a Riccardo Calafiori mistake, but the defense recovered well to nullify most of the danger and David Raya tipped the shot (that may have been wide anyway) beyond the post.
The closing 15 minutes of the first half didn’t add much more. Arsenal had a decent chance from a set piece, but the ball was a little bit behind Kai Havertz, who couldn’t get back and down to steer it goalwards. Ebere Eze was anonymous and lost the ball more than half the time he touched it. He’s simply not a left winger.
You’d like to see more attacking impetus from Arsenal but all of the ball and basically nothing down your end of the pitch is a perfectly fine way to start an away match in the Premier League. Coming into the match, Forest hadn’t conceded that many goals and had scored even fewer. They had the second-lowest xG against in the Premier League. You’d have expected this one to be more than a bit cagey. That’s a lot of words to say, “I think we can sometimes be a bit too hard on Arsenal expecting them to score multiple goals from the opening whistle.”
Bukayo Saka got Neco Williams onto a fairly early yellow card, and then Arsenal kind of stopped attacking down the right side. Without a rewatch, it’s tough to say whether Forest shifted their shape to protect the booked fullback or Arsenal didn’t do enough to really pressure a vulnerable spot. Either way, you’d like to see the Gunners make it more difficult for Williams and Forest by attacking the defender on a caution. Force the issue!
The aforementioned Eze made way for Noni Madueke at halftime. The change opened things up, at both ends of the pitch. Nottingham Forest had a decent spell to start the second half but didn’t have much more than a handful of harmless corners to show for it before settling back into their deep setup.
Mikel Arteta brought Viktor Gyokeres, Mikel Merino, and Jurrien Timber on for Kai Havertz, Bruno Guimaraes, and Ben White on 65 minutes. Again, the changes didn’t do very much. Nottingham Forest are a well-organized side and defend stubbornly. The Gunners worked an excellent chance for Declan Rice off a beautiful attacking move, but the midfielder fired over the bar. It felt like it might be one of those days for Arsenal.
Fortunately, Arsenal got the bounce they needed. Nottingham Forest set a very deep line and allow a lot of possession. When you allow opponents onto you and let them have the ball in areas relatively close to your own goal, bad things can happen. A Forest player misjudged a ball on the outside of the box that he might have beaten Declan Rice to clear. The Arsenal midfielder spread it wide to Noni Madueke. The winger immediately went at his man, worked some space, and fired a shot. The shot took a wicked deflection that left Matz Sels completely helpless. Good things happen when you play quickly and shoot. Noni Madueke did both of those things and was handsomely rewarded.
Nottingham Forest had a brilliant chance to equalize but Declan Rice, as he often does, was in the right place at the right time to block the shot. Of course, if Forest had scored from that attack, I might have totally lost it. Liam Delap was way off the pitch, well beyond the couple of yards off the line where you can actually, and one foot was well off the ground. Michael Oliver, who takes holiday refereeing assignments from Manchester City’s owners, saw nothing wrong with it.
Arsenal played a decidedly un-Arsenal few minutes of added time. Murillo dribbled through about four players before curling shot wide of the far post for what would have been a highlight-reel equalizing goal. About thirty seconds later, Ezri Konsa played Liam Delap onside, allowing the striker in on goal. To his credit, the centerback ran the play down and made a brilliant sliding block. Forest committed a foul on the ensuing corner and that was all she wrote.
It wasn’t a particularly pretty match but that was to be expected. Nottingham Forest play low-event football. Arsenal came out on top, as champions do. On to Bayern Munich midweek.
