Arsenal stayed within touching distance of first place when Noni Madueke’s late deflected strike helped the Gunners to a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Sunday.
MORE — Reason for Arsenal concern? | Mikel Arteta reaction
The Gunners move back into second place on the table, three points back of Man City.
Forest have slipped into the bottom three with a 1W-2D-4L record after wins from Fulham, Bournemouth, and Aston Villa.
- Arsenal flirted with 75% possession for the entire game but barely produced more than 1.0 xG (1.07).
- Noni Madueke’s deflected 80th-minute goal accounts for win.
- Forest get three good chances after going behind but cannot get effort on target.
- Eberechi Eze got rare start, hooked at halftime for Madueke.
- Morgan Gibbs-White unable to feature for Forest.
- Declan Rice shines in the first half, with 0.20 xA off 57-of-58 passing, finished game with 113 touches, assist, three created chances.
- Bruno Guimaraes wins 10-of-12 duels in 66 minutes starting next to Rice.
- Gunners meet Bayern Munich at midweek in Champions League, then host Everton in Premier League.
- Forest slip into bottom three, next face Ipswich Town away on Friday.
Last season was a 0-0 at this ground. Deflected shot or not, Arsenal found all three points.
“Something we didn’t do the last two seasons, which was win the game,” Arteta said. “The margins were really small. The longer the game goes on, they have more belief, you have to take more risks, and the game can break. It was tough to generate open chances against them.”
Here’s more from Arteta.
Thoughts on the game: “Man this place is so hard to come to, everybody knows it. They make it so difficult to you. We showed grit, determination, and I think we showed a champion’s spirit here. I’m really pleased.”
What did Arteta say when putting you into the game? “We know it’s difficult here. The first half a lot of the time it’s cagey. Hang in there, stick to the game plan, and to me he just says attack the opposition, be dangerous, be yourself, and be good defensively.”
On his goal: “I seen he’s already in the box. I had beaten him on the outside a few times, so I figured I’d go inside and let it rip.”
You mentioned a champion’s spirit: “At times maybe last year this game might’ve gone different in the end but we have that extra belief. We know we are the champions and we can pull that out of the bag when we need it.”
The Premier League can shock you. We had a shock at Brighton and we had to come put it right.”
An 89th-minute chance comes on the counter — of course — for Forest.
The ball is driven down the left side and crossed for Chris Wood, but he wants it on his other foot.
That gives Declan Rice time to arrive and lunge to block a left-footed effort.
Noni Madueke gets the ball on the left and attacks with vigor.
He smashes a shot from a sharp angle and it turns off Jair Cunha’s leg.
Matz Sels cannot react to keep the clean sheet.
Now Arsenal have 10 minutes to three points.
Jurrien Timber nearly makes Arteta look like a genius as he tears around the outside with an overlapping run to reap the rewards of quick passing from Odegaard and Saka.
He puts the ball on a plate for Rice, who hammers over the goal.
Forest getting closer to a memorable point.
0-0, 73'
Arsenal have been winning corners but Forest have been clearing them.
Arteta makes more moves before a 67th minute corner, Out go Guimaraes, Havertz, and Ben White for Mikel Merino, Viktor Gyokeres, and Jurrien Timber.
Gabriel gets on the corner but his header curls over the bar.
The first yellow of the game for Arsenal is halftime sub Noni Madueke for a foul on Nico Dominguez.
Forest go the other way and win a corner as Liam Delap tears into a shot that is deflected off the side netting.
Murillo gets onto the corner kick but Raya is able to collect it.
Still 0-0-, 54'.
Eberechi Eze gets a quick pull from his rare Premier League start.
Noni Madueke takes his place, and will have 45 minutes to help the Gunners cut through Forest’s resolute defense.
A wonderfully-pinged long ball finds Liam Delap, who dances through defenders before getting unceremoniously dropped by Declan Rice outside the arc.
Somehow, there’s no yellow card to Rice for a truly deliberate foul. Forest will accept the spoils of a dangerous free kicks.
Neco Williams hits the free kick off a quick touch but slams it into the side of Bruno Guimaraes’ head. The Brazilian will be quite affected by that, and the whistle is blown to treat him.
Almost halftime now.
The Gunners whip in a free kick from the right and Kai Havertz heads over the bar.
The German also caught Xavier Schlager with a wayward elbow andthe Forest man needs treatment on the pitch.
There’s no intend here but great speed and Schlager’s quite sore. He requires treatment and has to leave the game for at least one minute.
The Gunners are getting closer to goal even if the shots aren’t arriving to the City Ground.
Matz Sels snares a cross after an Arsenal corner, and the Gunners have earned a few of those as we near the half-hour mark.
Forest have a corner as a counter attack leads to a blocked cross and then a Dan Ndoye shot touched out by David Raya.
The ensuing corner kick sees Murillo power a header wide of the goal.
He takes an Ezri Konsa elbow to the head and is bloodied and requires treatment.
This pertains to our first update quite a bit.
Arsenal have almost 80% of the ball but have found a resolute and willing group of active defenders keeping them from the 18.
In fact, both teams have two touches in the opposition box after a quarter-hour.
Zero shot attempts combined has made for a puzzle more than a play.
Arsenal immediately learn that Nottingham Forest are going to be stingy outside of possession.
The Tricky Trees want to keep the ball and try their hand at it, but the yellow-clad visitors find Forest avoiding the press outside of their own half.
Arsenal are a point and 13 goals worth of goal differential behind second-place Brighton, who demolished Palace earlier today.
They need a win to move back into second place, three points behind Man City.
Forest are now in the bottom three on tiebreakers behind Fulham. A point boosts them above the drop zone while a win will send them 11th.
Mikel Arteta has kept Myles Lewis-Skelly on the bench to start against Nottingham Forest, sacrificing a bit of possession for a lot more danger in Bruno Guimaraes.
Declan Rice — or perhaps Guimaraes — will take a slightly more defensive role in the midfield but this is another chance for Guimaraes to show that he’s the best fit with Rice and just behind Martin Odegaard.
Guimaraes is such a flashpoint for a team and has creativity and drive. He played as a six at times in Newcastle’s fantastic midfield with Sandro Tonali and Joelinton. He looked even better at times for Brazil.
Arteta is going to keep grooming the young and impressive Lewis-Skelly and rightly so, but he also needs to find his right now big-game midfield. This feels likely to be it, especially if it comes down to out-dueling PSG or Barcelona and thier magnificent middies.
Starting XI
Sels
Murillo
Diomande
Dominguez
Williams
Schlager
McAtee
Cunha
Munoz
Ndoye
Delap
Subs: Victor, Sangare, Hudson-Odoi, Kalimuendo, Yates, Netz, Milenkovic, Aina, Wood.
Starting XI
Raya
White
Konsa
Gabriel Magalhaes
Calafiori
Guimaraes
Rice
Odegaard
Saka
Eze
Havertz
Subs: Meslier, Timber, Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Zubimendi, Merino, Madueke, Dowman, Gyokeres.
We’re about a quarter-hour from lineups, and here’s what we are monitoring:
We know Nikola Milenkovic, Igor Jesus, and Nicolo Savona are set to miss the game for Forest. Will Liam Delap lead the line again despite a wayward finishing record? Chris Wood is still there, after all.
William Saliba is back in light training but not close to a return. Piero Hincapie and Christos Tzolis remain out and Martin Zubimendi could also miss out as two of Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Bruno Guimaraes will run the midfield.
At least for someone of my age, it’s safe to say we’ll never see Forest lead the all-time series with Arsenal.
Arsenal’s 56 wins over Forest since 1904 are 27 more than the Tricky Trees’ win total in the series.
The sides have drawn 24 times.
Forest have drawn Arsenal in two of their last three meetings, though they’ve gone six matches without a win.
Kick off time: 11:30am ET Sunday (October 18)
Venue: City Ground — Nottingham
TV Channel: NBCSN/Peacock
Stream link: Watch live on Peacock
