Arsenal walked into Nottingham with a chance to turn a good weekend into a great one. Manchester City had already dropped points, and victory at the City Ground would have pushed Arsenal nine clear at the top. Instead, Mikel Arteta’s side left with a 0-0 that felt like a point gained on paper, but two points left on the pitch.
The night began in fitting fashion for a proper old-school ground. At the famous Trent Bridge Inn, the doormen spotted my press credentials and ushered me in ahead of the queues with genuine warmth, exactly how football should be in modern times. Inside, the City Ground was tight, loud and traditional, the kind of place where teams either find a spark or get dragged into a trench.
Forest’s plan was obvious from the first few minutes: a low, organised block, bodies behind the ball, and a refusal to give Arsenal any clean routes through the middle. Arsenal had plenty of possession, plenty of territory, but very little oxygen in the spaces where it matters. It became one of those games where every pass is allowed, but the important pass is suffocated.
Arsenal’s best chance of the first half fell to Gabriel Martinelli, and it was the sort of miss that changes the emotional temperature of a match. From close range, he somehow failed to convert, and the longer it stayed 0-0, the more Forest’s belief grew and the more Arsenal’s play began to feel like a loop.
Viktor Gyokeres had a moment that briefly suggested a breakthrough might come anyway, only for Murillo to recover and snuff it out with a decisive block. Forest’s striker, at the other end, spent long spells with his back to Arsenal’s defence, pinning centre-backs, scrapping for second balls, and making the match as awkward as possible. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective, and it helped keep Arsenal from ever settling into a fluent attacking rhythm.
There was a penalty flashpoint before half-time too, with Forest appealing and VAR taking a look, but nothing given. By the interval, the story was Arsenal control without clarity. Forest discipline without ambition. A stalemate that suited the home side far more than the leaders.
Arteta reacted at half-time, replacing Martinelli with Leandro Trossard, looking for sharper combinations and different angles in tight spaces. Yet the pattern didn’t shift. Forest stayed compact. Arsenal stayed patient. And patience began to blur into predictability.
Then came the big swing of the manager’s arm. Arteta didn’t just tweak, he reloaded. After the half-time change, he made four more attacking switches around the hour mark, effectively turning the game into an exercise in “find the lock, try another key”. Off went Noni Madueke, Gyokeres, Martin Odegaard and Martín Zubimendi. On came Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze.
It was, in total, five attacking changes, and it was a clear message: Arsenal were not accepting a sterile draw.
For a spell, the changes injected bite. Saka’s presence brought immediate urgency and a more threatening delivery from wide areas. Declan Rice tested Matz Sels, and Saka later forced another strong save, while Merino also went close as Arsenal turned the screw. It was the closest Arsenal came to making Forest wobble.
But even in that spell, the theme of the night remained. Forest’s box was crowded. Shooting lanes narrowed quickly. Final passes were snatched at or intercepted. And when the moment to be ruthless arrived, Arsenal didn’t land the blow.
After the match, Arteta’s disappointment was unmistakable. He repeatedly framed it as a missed chance rather than a respectable point, especially with City’s result already opening the door. “Every week is an opportunity,” he said, and admitted that if Arsenal had won, “we would have been in a different position”.
He also pointed to the defensive platform, making it clear Arsenal had done enough without the ball to expect more with it. His frustration centred on the fact Arsenal didn’t win despite their control and security at the back. “Without conceding a single shot on target… and we haven’t won the game, I’m disappointed,” was the essence of it.
Arteta was careful not to paint it as the same problem as other blanks. He stressed that this was a different type of opponent, a different type of block, and that Arsenal’s execution in key moments fell short. He spoke about what he wanted after regaining the ball: more composure, more security in possession, and fewer “guilty moments” that broke their own momentum. He also credited Forest, calling them “a team very difficult” to play against and repeating the point that when openings appear against sides like this, you must take them, because it changes the entire shape of the game.
The rotating of the wide players was also addressed. Arteta explained the winger changes as part of managing the squad, saying they have “fantastic players” who can offer different things, and that Arsenal tried to impact the game from the start, after half-time, and then again by throwing on even more attacking options. In other words: he felt he emptied the bench with intent, and still didn’t get the reward.
On Gyokeres, he didn’t single him out harshly, but the message was pointed. Arteta said he needs his forwards to be “decisive at this level”, because games like this come down to players who can “unlock the door” when space is scarce and time is tight. That line, more than any tactical breakdown, summed up Arsenal’s night: they were knocking politely, repeatedly, but never kicked it in.
And then there was the late controversy, the decision that had Arteta bristling in the post-match room. Arsenal wanted a penalty when a cross struck Ola Aina in the box, and VAR waved play on. Arteta’s view was clear: he felt it should have been given. He referenced the sequence as shoulder first, then the arm position, and you could sense he believed that one moment should have tilted the game and the table.
So Arsenal leave Nottingham with their lead intact and, thanks to City’s slip, still with the weekend broadly moving in their favour. But there’s no escaping the feel of it: this was the chance to go nine clear, and Arsenal didn’t take it.
Forest will savour the clean sheet and the point like a trophy. Arsenal will bank the draw, but they will also hear the quiet warning in it. When the game becomes a locked room and the opponent piles bodies in the doorway, Arteta can make five attacking changes and still be left asking the same question: where does the invention come from when the path is blocked and the moment demands a key?
