Mikel Arteta was adamant his team should have been awarded a penalty for handball by Ola Aina 10 minutes from time that would have given Arsenal the opportunity to move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Instead Nottingham Forest hung on gamely for a doughty goalless draw in a performance redolent of the team last season who were pushing for European qualification. They may only be five points clear of the relegation zone, after West Ham’s last-gasp win at Tottenham, but Sean Dyche was understandably proud of his team’s efforts that suggest Forest are moving in the right direction.
Aina did appear to move his arm towards a right-wing cross that initially struck his shoulder and would have led to another Arsenal corner. And everyone knows where that so often leads.
Arteta was told that the video assistant referee had adjudged there should be no penalty as the ball ricocheted off Aina’s shoulder on to his arm. “They are right that it hits the shoulder,” the Arsenal manager said, “[but] then he takes the ball with a hand. So their explanation is not right. The order is OK but the timing and the intention of the player is very clear. So in my opinion, it’s a very clear penalty.”
After the goalless draw with Liverpool before their cup adventures, this is only the third time Arsenal have failed to score in two successive league games since 2022/23 and, on each occasion, Forest have been the second opponents.
This game had been summed up neatly in the 82nd minute when two Forest players hunted down Gabriel Jesus as the Arsenal substitute tried to see the ball out for a throw-in. Elliot Anderson was not settling for that, crashing into the tackle that won his team the restart. Sixty yards down the touchline, Dyche clapped his hands above his head; Arteta reached out to either side, palms raised to the skies in incredulity that his team could get so legally bullied.
Yet such is the way of this season. Just as the opportunity knocked, with Manchester City losing to Manchester United earlier in the day, for Arsenal to stretch their lead at the top, with Forest seemingly on the ropes after only one win in six games, up comes the underdog with a feisty performance to sum up this manager.
If the jury is still out on Dyche despite the positive start to his reign, then this was the kind of performance to get the Forest faithful back onside.
Arsenal, in contrast, appeared well in control of their destiny and, able to rotate their wide players, tested Forest’s vulnerability from set-pieces with two superb corners in the early moments. Declan Rice almost netted with his stomach from another cross, from Ben White, and both Gabriel Martinelli and Martín Zubimendi should have scored when getting on the end of Noni Madueke’s sense of creativity.
Forest, having ended a four-game losing streak by winning at West Ham 11 days ago, rallied after this challenging first half hour. As they got a foothold in the game, Michael Oliver, the referee, made an astute close call when awarding a free-kick just outside the area after Callum Hudson-Odoi was tripped by Jurriën Timber.
Dyche compared this penalty claim with Arsenal’s for Aina’s alleged handling offence. “It hits our player on the arm and you’re like, ‘Where does this live?’ We’ve got to be careful with all this.
“I thought we had a really good shout. Callum’s gone in, he’s in mid-flow. He’s going into the box [so] to decide the moment of contact is a tight call. If that was on them, I’d be buzzing to get that one. I’d be singing hallelujah.”
When Forest continued in the ascendancy at the start of the second half, Arteta took decisive action and made four changes by the hour mark.
Bukayo Saka immediately made a difference. He scampered down the right wing to pull his cross back for Rice, whose volley, tipped aside by Matz Sels, was Arsenal’s first effort on target – in the 59th minute.
When Rice returned the favour from the other flank, Saka’s header was brilliantly turned aside by Sels at full stretch. Then Saka crossed and Mikel Merino’s header needed brushing behind. Suddenly, it was all Arsenal.
Forest were on a good night, however. They tend to be when Ibrahim Sangaré plays. Dyche’s team have only lost twice in the 12 games when the Ivorian midfielder has featured, and missed him badly when he was away at the Africa Cup of Nations. He provided the glue in this gritty performance, holding in front of the defence, nicking 50/50s and with the corollary of allowing Anderson, Forest’s best player, more freedom to go foraging.
Arteta was not unduly disheartened. “Every week is an opportunity,” he said. “We want to win every game. But we made a smaller step, not the one that we wanted, but it’s a step.”
