Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal
by Layth Yousif 
at the City Ground 

THIS was a cold struggle of a game. 

The relentless obduracy of Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest cancelled out Arsenal’s intermittent attacking intentions, to leave both teams with a point, following an instantly forgettable goalless draw on the banks of the River Trent on Saturday evening. 

In a game of few chances at the atmospheric City Ground, packed with 30,729 hardy souls who deserved far better, Gabriel Martinelli should have put the visitors ahead with a first-half effort, but the ball flew wide.

After results earlier in the day that saw Pep Guardiola’s side unexpectedly lose the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, Mikel Arteta’s table-toppers had the chance to move a whopping nine points clear of Manchester City. 

While, for relegation-threatened Forest, West Ham’s victory over Arsenal’s bitter rivals Spurs — in geography if nothing else right now for the miserably underperforming Thomas Frank — saw former Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo’s Irons move to within four points of Dyche’s side, who are perching precariously on the edge of the dreaded trapdoor from the promised land. 

Speaking after the match, Arteta groped for positives insisting: “We made a step, a smaller step than we would have wanted, by still a step.”

It was a huge game at both ends of the table, as the raucous atmosphere testified.

Arteta made three changes from the team that beat Chelsea 3-2 in midweek, but despite also then making five attacking substitutions in a bid to break down stubborn Forest, unlike the League Cup victory at Stamford Bridge in midweek, this was no pulsating classic. Far from it. 

Noni Madueke and Gabi Martinelli were drafted in on the flanks while Bukayo Saka and Leo Trossard moved to the bench. David Raya returned in goal for cup keeper Kepa, while Cristhian Mosquera was back from injury to take up a spot on the bench.

Dyche made nine changes from the side that lost to Wrexham in the FA Cup last week with only keeper Matz Sels and Igor Jesus keeping their places in the team — meaning only one change from the team that beat West Ham in their last Premier League game.

While former Arsenal academy attacker Omari Hutchison dropped to the bench, Ibrahim Sangare returned to the side. 

Forest started the brighter side, powered by the vocal home support that had rousingly sung their unofficial club anthem Mist Rolling In at kick-off, a take on Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre. 

In a frenetic start that saw both sides battle for supremacy, Ben White, making his 150th appearance in Arsenal colours, fired over on 20 minutes. 

Three minutes later Raya showed impeccable timing by racing out to deny Callum Hudson-Odoi bearing down on goal, after a through ball from Murillo that beat the Gunners high line. 

In a disappointing game that flickered but rarely ignited, Martinelli could and should have scored on 28 minutes, but steered his chance wide when well-placed following a Declan Rice corner. 

Just after the half-hour mark, Martin Zubimendi fired across the Forest goal, after an intelligent ball from Madueke, but the ball flew low past Sels’ far post. 

Timber was booked by referee Michael Oliver for making contact with Hudson-Odoi just outside the box. The subsequent free kick to Forest on the edge of the area came to nothing, after Ola Aina wastefully fired wide to end a spell of dominance for the home side. 

Arsenal swept up the other end, with the consistently ineffective Viktor Gyokeres attempting, and alas, failing, to barge his way through the solid Murillo in the Forest back line.

Arteta swapped Martinelli for Trossard at the start of the second half, as the visitors attempted to make inroads into the Forest defence. 

Ten minutes after the interval with the score still resolutely goalless, Arteta made three more substitutions, with Madueke, Odegaard and Gyokeres hauled off, to be replaced by Saka, Jesus and Mikel Merino in a bid to break the deadlock. 

Moments after Saka’s entrance, the 24-year-old made an immediate impact by feeding Rice, who tested Sels, as the ball was parried to safety. 

On 64 minutes Sels once again denied Arsenal after a superb, full-length diving fingertip save to prevent Saka’s looping header from entering the far corner. 

Merino’s header then flew wide from Rice’s free kick — with the question arising would a header from Gabriel have been a better option, with the Brazil defender right behind Merino as the ball flew into the box? 

As the clock ticked down Arteta made one last throw of the dice when replacing Zubimendi for Eze. 

Shortly afterwards Aina made contact with the ball via his shoulder, then his hand in the box, but whether that was enough for a penalty was soon decreed by VAR not to be. 

A frustrated Arteta claimed otherwise, saying his team were denied “a very clear penalty.” 

Dyche, ever the contrary yeoman, clearly had other ideas, dismissing the optimistic appeal by saying: “You can cancel football if you’re going to give that.”

Forest then swept up the other end for Gibbs-White to shoot wide, after a pullback from Hudson-Odoi. 

The final whistle came soon after to put everyone out of their misery, after a deeply disappointing clash that promised so much more.  

And so, despite the bustling but largely anodyne endeavour from the teams, the score remained goalless with both adversaries deserving of a point. But no more. 

Whether the spoils are useful for either side’s ambitions come the end of the season is hard to tell.