NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0-0 ARSENAL: CALAFIORI COMES CLOSEST AS GUNNERS DRAW ANOTHER BLANK
MATCH REPORT – PLAYER RATINGS – ARTETA REACTION – VIDEO
In most contexts, a draw away from home against the team in third when you’re in second isn’t a bad result. In our current context, with our forward line decimated, our form in something of a dip, and goals harder to find than the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it really isn’t a bad point against a team like Nottingham Forest.
But within that context is our own sense of culpability for making goals that hard to come by, and a diminished enthusiasm for the season as a whole as Liverpool run away with the title. If we’re gonna do context, we have to take all of it into account, and last night – like Leicester and West Ham – felt like another game we endured rather than enjoyed.
To be honest, I think we played better against Forest than we did against either of those two. It wasn’t a million miles better, but we were improved. There seemed to be a bit more energy, a desire to put things right after what happened on Saturday, but the big issue remained: a lack of goal threat, or firepower, whatever you want to call it.
When Mikel Arteta took Riccardo Calafiori off at half-time, I understood it because he’d been on a yellow since the second minute, and he couldn’t run the risk of playing another game down to 10 men for any period. Forest’s route-1 approach was something we dealt with very well for most of this game, but one ball over the top that creates a difficult moment and you could pay the price. So I got why he feared a second yellow for the Italian, who had a couple of difficult moments against Callum Hudson-Odoi, and brought Kieran Tierney on at the break.
However, in doing so we lost something from our attack. Look at the respective heatmaps: