Result: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 20 May 2023
Venue: City Ground
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Kiwior, Gabriel, Xhaka, Jorginho, Partey, Odegaard, Trossard, Jesus, Saka
Subs: Turner, Holding, Walters, Tierney, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Bandeira, Nketiah, Cozier-Duberry
Taiwo Awoniyi’s first half strike condemned Arsenal to a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest that confirmed Manchester City as Premier League champions.
The Gunners came into the game hoping to make Pep Guardiola’s side wait another day for a third consecutive title but they produced a limp performance against a side that secured their top-flight status in front of a raucous home crowd.
Pre-game
Mikel Arteta made two changes from the side that started against Brighton. Leandro Trossard replaced the injured Gabriel Martinelli and Thomas Partey took over from Kieran Tierney. The Ghanaian returned in midfield meaning Granit Xhaka moved to left-back to assume the Oleksandr Zinchenko role; the Ukrainian was sidelined by a calf issue. The bench included three teenagers, Reuell Wallters, Mauro Bandeira and Amario Cozier-Duberry. Reiss Nelson was ill and missed out.
First Half
Arsenal were quick to take the sting out of a fervent home atmosphere, settling quickly into a system that was both familiar and unusual. We had loads of the ball in the opening 10 minutes and, playing without any particular pressure, were patient and composed in possession.
The movement of Odegaard and Saka was good, as was the willingness of Jesus to try and spin behind his markers. A ball from the Norwegian set up a half-chance for the Brazilian who was closed down quickly by Kaylor Navas. Soon after, the Brazilian headed over from a corner as we continued to probe.
The home side had barely had a kick but on the break, they worked a chance that led to an opener. Odegaard was sloppy in the way he conceded possession but after that Forest were ruthless. Gibbs-White raced forward, his pass found Taiwo Awoniyi and when Gabriel Magalhaes attempted a tackle, the ball flicked up off the striker and over Ramsdale. (GOAL 1-0)
A clever corner nearly led to a quick equaliser. Saka fed a bouncing ball to Trossard on the edge of the box and the Belgian’s first time effort went just wide. It pretty much summed Arsenal up. We weren’t short of effort or guile but when push came to shove we didn’t have enough quality to capitalise on our dominance of the ball.
In the dying seconds of the half, the same corner routine resulted in the same result. Saka fed Trossard and this time the effort went way over the bar leading to raucous cheers from Forest fans.
Second Half
City were quickest out of the traps and came close to doubing their advantage inside two minutes after a set piece was lofted into the box. Ramsdale ended up clawing away an effort at his near post and eventually claimed the second of two corners to settle our nerves.
That early flurry of activity aside, Forest were happy to sit back and soak up pressure. The question was whether Arsenal could find a way to unpick the lock.
In truth, we were laboured in possession, and struggled to find any real tempo or create chances of real merit. Jesus had a penalty claim dismissed – and ended up in the book when he complained about it – Saka stung Navas’ palms and Jorginho fired wide from a corner.
That was the signal for Arteta to switch things up. Tierney and Nketiah replaced Xhaka and Kiwior and not long after Vieira replaced Trossard.
In between, Gibbs-White found the sidenetting after Ben White gave away possession on the edge of the box and Jorginho tried his luck on the half volley with an effort that cleared the bar. It was all very tepid from the Gunners who faffed about in a similar vein well into the final 10 minutes.
There was no cutting edge at all and the sight of Gabriel Jesus slipping over his own feet when trying to cross was enough to make you chuck the TV remote through the window. If you hadn’t done it by then, watching the entire Arsenal midfield allow Morgan Gibbs-White all the space in the world to fire at Ramsdale should have tipped you over the edge.
Did it really matter? Not really. Was it annoying? Of course.
This Arsenal side has produced a series of memorable moments this season but this was a second performance in a row to forget. Fingers crossed we can get out of the funk when we face Wolves in the final game of the season. It’s been a memorable ride but the end can’t come soon enough now.
Flashbacks of Emeryball
Emeryball isn’t doing bad with Villa.
Yeah, Emeryball is kicking ass up in Brummieland.
It always works in first year. Next year villa will be in relegation scrap and turn to Big Sam/Dyche
Sagebrush
Sagebrusjh
I don’t know but I’ve seen Ordegaard give away the ball at least twice leading to goals against this season. And passing straight to opposition
worst analysis ever. break it down for us obi wan, for those of us that don’t understand.
DDDLWWLL in April and May. Ok, great season. But again we’ve utterly capitulated in the run-in to a season. I don’t know if it’s mentality, injuries, fatigue or sloppiness. But it’s a worrying trend for Arteta and something he absolutely needs to sort out in 2024. These last two games have felt a bit embarrassing if I’m honest. They make it seem like we were never actually in a title race. And it just plays into the general consensus of what we still are as a club. Maybe they are right. Maybe we still are a brittle club. But we… Read more »
Again, we’ve had nothing from our second string. Holding – shaky. Tierney – ineffective. Nketiah – nothing. Vieira – less than nothing. Trossard – massively fallen away. Jorginho – one great game every four. Kiwior – Really good and really bad moments. ESR – poor when utilised. At the end of the season, these players have to perform. The injuries pile up and you need something from these guys. We have got very little from any of them. And I know that first team players have gone off the boil. But they’ve been playing all season and the second string… Read more »
We just imploded. The sideway passes were driving me insane, a reminiscent of what Arteta did when he played under Wenger.
stay of the soy milk Johnny boy, we’ve had a great season. We’ve taken a huge step forward, rice and caceido will be another huge step forward.
our reserves are relegation level at best. we need two world class teams to win the title AND have a sniff at the Chanpions League.
Or else just don’t expect anything but top half finished
Great tactician, but his man management is worrying.
It is. No one is saying Arteta out but he’s not above criticism. His man management is borderline arrogant. Maybe some of the things Aubemeyang said weren’t 100% false.
you know fuck all about football lad if you want to get rid of arteta. replace him with who? catch a grip of yourself.
Maybe calm down, and read his comment again
read it again xhaka out non negotiable, point still stands.
Playing a number six that is past his best as a right back does not strike me as being tactically great.
I think that decision had more to do with snubbing KT than tactics. He is extremely harsh with certain players.
The vibrancy, dynamic movement, and initiative that made us difficult to defend against in the earlier stages of the season has vanished all of a sudden.
I can’t entirely say why that is, but that has been my observation.
Such a shame that a season that promised so much is ending on a sour note. A real shame.
Team just had peaked early in the season and ran out of steam (and ideas) since late March/April.
Hope it’s part of ‘process’ and the club pull a Liverpool: trust manager, players and the board after a disappointment.
Absolutely spot on it has ruined a great season for me, the past 8 games.
Pretty much this. The way we succumbed and just crumbled away vindicates alot of dickheads. and how can we argue against it.
The last couple months have been disappointing, but I’m more than happy.
Guaranteed second behind, probably the best team in Europe. Apparently more wins than any of Wengers sides have ever acheived.
I’ve haven’t been this proud of Arsenal since 2008
Zzzzzzzzzz….
You know, you’re right. Brighton and Forest were boring games of football. I remember in both games my concentration going.
How many times could we say that this season?
Not a good sign.
It’s not today’s game per se, its the one horse race that the PL has become. It’s the fawning of a team who has come to own the league and just about everything else they feature in and how it’ll go on and on and on and fucking on. The pundits will go “told you so” and suck some more City cock because “Pep is a genius you know, yeah I always said it” and “they only criticise City because they’re jealous” in an eternal fucking bore off.
THAT’s what the zeds are for.
Embarrassing. Players and manager. No heart and no fight. We could be in a for a rude awakening next season with CL football back.
You’re welcome, City.
Fuck them!
Seeing our players constantly get the ball, stop the ball, switch sides, run forward two steps, stop the ball, switch sides then pass it to the side was unbearable.
White-partey-partey-white
It’s so infuriating. Yet seeing it described in detail is funny🤣
I thought we were going to get carded for time-wasting while in possession.
Complete and utter fall of confidence. Deer in headlights, revert to coached training patterns.
We’ve seen that moving players into unfamiliar places doesn’t work, so I put this defeat down to Mikel demonstrating he needs more depth in the squad.
Arteta’s treatment of ESR and KT is questionable to say the least. Oh well, two quality players we are going to have to replace.
We are the Murphy Law team really. Arsenal 2022-2023 should be in textbooks as a good example of Murphy Law.
This team didn’t believe they can be champions. They wanted CL and once they believed that would be achieved, their compass went astray.
The 3 points were more valuable to Forrest. I’m happy for them
Agreed. Congratulations to Forest!
I’m happy that Leeds are on their way down, or Dyche, or in the best of worlds both, so I’m almost content with the loss.
I definitely have no issue with Ginger Penis Head being relegated.
I hope Everton go down as we’re always abysmal at Goodison.
Vardy going down is fine with me considering he rejected us a few years back.
That was shit from us. Sooner we can close the book on the season the better now. Fingers crossed we can have a fun day next weekend.
But congratulations to Forest. I have something of a soft spot for them based around watching them in European nights as a kid.
Bottlers.
Forest in a MUST win and our players “who cares?”
Gave away the goal.
Static in the first half.
Torturous viewing.
I think you’re stretching the notion of “MUST win” there given it was well out of our hands.
I meant that Forest had to win and we didn’t have to win and, well, it showed.
We couldn’t not finish 2nd. How motivated can a team be in that situation?
fuck off to spurs, torturous reading.
If you don’t care enough to force City to win it don’t bother turning up and they didn’t !!!
It feels like out only tactic is to play the ball down the wing and look for a cutback cross for someone to tap it in. I think this has been found out by other teams and now we’re really struggling to score
The thought of Eddie Nketiah up front in the Champions league makes me quiver
So does Jesus to be honest. His diving and moaning will soon rival Fernandes. Someone please tell him to pack it in before he becomes a lightning rod for righteous ridicule from other fans.
If Arsenal is to challenge for CL or PL title we will need at least 10 world class players brought in. Squad has chemistry and character but no depth and Trossard is the only impact sub. Nketiah has fallen off, ESR is not even getting time, Vieira is too skinny and too weak for PL, Zinchenko can’t defend, Jesus is another Lacazette type inconsistency in the making. Martinelli, Saka and Ødegaard can’t win you a title on their own.
Ten? If we bought all the City players, would we then become City fans?
I think we have seen why Pep let him go without a fight. Even before his injury that amount of talent but no goals in 10 as a striker is poor. Giroud got slated and still does for his non scoring run.
Sell him and Nketiah this window and get something else in. What they gave us this season isn’t enough. I want something deadlier up there. Not 9 out of 10 missed chances every game. I DEFINITELY don’t want Fernandes impressions. Jesus can take that the fuck elsewhere if that’s what he’s about.
Yep, he’s very one dimensional player. Would be helluva a player in the 90s though.
Inanimate carbon rod is more active and more a threat than nketiah has been in recent weeks
I have flashbacks of the rod being thrown a parade in Springfield 😂
It did something. Which is more than half our team today.
How much has Nketiah featured as of late? Players aren’t robots or FIFA characters. You can’t expect a.player who has barely played, built no rhythm, to come in for the starting striker and outperform them at the exact time you need them too..
I also believe Eddie would have been very good by now had he been allowed to continue after Jesus came back from his injury. The diving and complaining of the latter is embarrassing. First, score some goals, then you can start acting as a diva.
support city then, fucking embarrassing the comments on here.
🤣🤣🤣
Anthony taylor, man of the match.
I don’t give a shit what ESR does or does not do in training, or whatever “non-negotiables” he’s not doing, he’d be a darn sight better than any of the other options to replace Martinelli.
Absolute disgrace that he stayed on the bench while Vieira and Nketiah came on to do fuck all.
More abysmal man-management from Arteta. He’s already tanked the values of Guendouzi and Aubameyang and looks like he’s going to do it with ESR too (and I don’t think he should be sold at all, anyway).
Auba was how old and not scoring when we cut him loose? Seems like he played a significant role in that valuation.
Yea I could understand with Guendouzi and Auba cuz they had a history of being shitheads but ESR is genuinely a good kid. He has his own style and it’s effective, why punish him for it?
It’s completely bizarre. He was our 2nd-top scorer last season. What else does he need to do to prove his worth? Meanwhile, Trossard has been average for weeks (I’m still not convinced, personally), Nelson ‘looks good’ whilst doing the grand total of f all (other than the Bournemouth game) and Vieira falls over with the slightest contact and does very little else. It was even worse today, with Nketiah coming on. He’s not a wide player, and he’s not very good at the position he does play. Also, I thought Gabriel Jesus was supposed to have brought a winning mentality… Read more »
We need a 20+ premier league goals a season striker because it ain’t ever going to be Gabriel Jesus. If he scored half as much as he fell over, he’d be scoring more than the blonde neanderthal at Man City!
Could it be Balogun?
Seems like Arsenal rate Nketiah over Balogun…
I dont think Arteta rates him.
That’s what they all said about Mikel and Saliba.
No, but it could be Tammy abraham
I would have the blonde neanderthal over Jesus every day.
Jesus has no end product at all.
The Cyborg is so good he’d probably win even Spuddenham the league if he was enough of a cunt to join them.
Not with a bang but a whimper.
A pathetic performance: we never, ever looked like scoring.
Eight games ago we were five points clear at the top. Since then?
Played: 8
Won: 2
Drawn: 3
Lost: 3
But don’t say that this was choking or bottling, because that makes you negative.
I have absolutely no confidence in this group of players or the manager. For two seasons in a row they have collapsed at the sight of the finishing line.
Utterly, utterly pathetic.
Arteta and the coaching staff not integrating fringe or squad players effectively has cost us dearly. Again.
why bother watching the matches then? absolutely no confidence you say. bet you cheered the team when we scored five past the same opposition. what an easy road: you celebrate with the team when we win but you give them your back when we lose. coward.
Why do I watch the games? Because I’ve been an Arsenal fan for nearly 50 years.
I have absolutely no confidence or respect for this bunch of losers, who’ve disgraced that famous red and white shirt.
This is the most talented group of players we’ve had since The Invincibles; but they are the most weak and spineless collection of players I’ve EVER seen at the club.
No matter how talented you are you need guts to succeed, and these players don’t have it. They are an embarrassment.
The whole of football is laughing at us right now.
we are 2nd behind city, 10+ pts ahead of pool, manu, chelsea, spurs etc, just in case you forgot…
We bottled top 4 last season. We bottled the league this season. Seems to me like we’ve finally graduated bottling under Arteta. Next year we may end up 1 better.
Champions League final? 3-0 up with 30 minutes to go?
Maybe if you had a better attitude by the start of next season your handle would be fitgooner.
We need a real leader or two. A real Patrick V type. Wining the league requires heart, courage and belief. We had enough technical talent, despite what people say about our bench, to win the title from the position we were in, we all know it. 9 points from 8 games was way less than we should’ve achieved. This was underperformance, and ultimately I think due to not enough physical and mental strength in the squad. Martin O, Saka, Gabi etc are all great, but too nice. We need a couple of beefcakes schooled in the dark arts to toughen… Read more »
The finish line last year was the top of a hill, and this year the finish line was the top of the mountain. They fell short again, whilst breezing past the finish line they struggled with last year. The only “utterly, utterly pathetic” thing I can see is the reaction from people like yourself who are so quick to throw the hard work of this team away because they didn’t overachieve past their wildest dreams. Next year we come back stronger, and if the mental burden is lighter on the lads because a few of their fat fans are no… Read more »
Shambolic… What happened to our game esp the last 10… Aside from chelsea and Newcastle, we were just shocking. So much for 10 finals. We need to sort this. Its deja Vu all over again, though we did improve from 5th to 2nd.
That “10 finals” comment was really dumb. Put way too much pressure on the team.
Let’s hope Arteta and the players all learn from this. And get a better sports psychologist next season.
After the Spurs result I kind of felt that the Gunners will follow the pattern… Finishing on such low doesn’t bode well for the next season 😭
Are we going to qualify from group stage of CL then our players believe everything else is pure bonus? Getting eliminated by Lens or Marseille maybe Olympiacos or Basel?
Too early to talk about that. There is significant transfer activity to navigate first.
At some point I stopped being mad about not winning the league but gifting City the league the way we did with 3 games to spare, that’s criminal of us and quite disappointing. I know it’s still a great season but the end could’ve been better.
We went out of the running when we gifted Southampton 2 goals at home.
Yep, we couldn’t beat the worst team in the PL at our own ground. Never going to win the title with that kind of result.
We’re completely lost without Zinchenko and Martinelli on the left. We haven’t scored since they both played the Newcastle game.
Zinchenko was a major reason our form dipped before he got injured – he is not a good defender, and it shocks me we are looking at Cancelo who Man City got rid of because he cannot defend. Arteta equates Man City rejects with success but they got rid of them for a reason.
Not only is cancelo a horrible defender, he seems to be a problem in the dressing room and he’d cost a fortune in wages (also he’s not going to have any resale value being 28). So I expect we’ll sign him.
Worst performance of the season imo. Formation wss questionable but not to blame.
Bad result and our form has not been great lately. But I choose to look at the progress this season. In my opinion it looks like tired legs and a thin squad with lack of quality in the reserves that ended our title run. Let’s not lose faith in what we have accomplished. I kind of like the fact that Shitty can’t celebrate winning the league after a game.
2 questions: What the hell was that from Arsenal and is there a worse ref in PL than Anthony Taylor? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting a blame at all on a ref for a goose egg of a performance Arsenal just put out there but I’m so frustrated by this ref being so inconsistent in his calls.
Much like the Brighton game, the ref was not interested in calling a balanced game or even enforcing rules for things like time wasting, rotational fouling, or professional fouls.
Need enforcements next season and a new striker should be a priority. Sick of seeing Jesus do his best Bruno Fernandez impression every match , stay on your fucking feet!
Rather than sign a new striker, I’d like to see us integrate Balogun into the squad and spend the cash on other parts of the team instead.
If you think Balogun is the answer to our striker question you will be sadly mistaken, just like Nektiah.
The inability of the bench and reserves is in huge parts linked to the coach and the way he manages them. He clearly does not trust certain players and seems to only play players because he is forced to. (Remember him forcing Partey to play on when he was clearly injured a season or two ago?). This lack of trust is displayed in the timing of his substitutions as well and his over reliance and players like Saka, Jesus, and Zinchenko who are irreplaceable even when in bad form. It doesn’t matter how good you are, when a coach doesn’t… Read more »
Finishing 2nd is an amazing season, no doubt, but just giving the title to City like this is bothering me massively. Some (smarter) people than me on here said we should throw Europe and I didn’t agree, I do now though as losing Saliba has been massive. So gutted.
This season was officially over after the Brghton game. Today and next Sunday was always like credits running up the screen at the end of a movie.
The next concern is the summer window; we must improve the first team big time.
I do not care if the title challenge was was over before this game you just do not play like this. Do the badge justice and put in a shift. This was pathetic, no desire, no pride in the preformance.
Seeing the team’s performance in last 2 matches, I think I will stick a fiver on Arteta getting the sack before end of next season.
No way do we replicate the fast start of this season.
https://www.marca.com/en/football/manchester-city/2022/04/07/624f3c69e2704ed0818b45f6.html you cannot compete with a state funded football club like Manchester City unless you become a state funded football club. Criticising Arsenal for failing to win the Premiership is futile.
That may be right but We were crap today thanks to ourselves
We couldn’t even compete with Brighton and Notts Forest!
That just capped off what has been an absolutely dreadful end to our season and tbh it’s left a sour taste in my mouth. You don’t mind being beaten to the title by the better team but we’ve just rolled over and handed it to them. Worst of all City will now win the title by 10pts and clowns like Neville will have been proven 100% right.
Protip: Don’t worry what clowns like him think, say, or do.
Like I said elsewhere, Neville isn’t right. It just happens that his wishes for us came true. He couldn’t even predict the dumb shit that comes from his mouth, it just flows out of there naturally while his brain remains disengaged. He’s a clueless fucking twat with a bias that needs feeding or else it would consume him.
Take it from Orwell here, ignore him.
I believe Arteta has some way to go in managing a squad to keep everyone beyond the first eleven in top gear. Saka fell off these past 6 or so games but he kept playing him. He should have switched up things abit and maybe brought in Trossard to keep Saka rested and fresh to go again. Same can be said about Holding. He didn’t have very good games but he kept playing. Partey dropped off too. Zichenko same thing. The guys that come in to replace them, the problem is that they have barely played all season and they… Read more »
Unpopular opinion and before I say this, please note that I feel he is definitely an improvement to the team and he does add a different dimension which works sometimes. And the result is nothing to do with him alone..But….. We won’t win a title with Jesus as our main striker. Too many chances are missed or over complicated and Saka, Martinelli and MO won’t score every game.. Title was already lost but any defeat is a disappointment. Hopefully they put it right v Wolves to round off a encouraging season. Looking forward to some additions to the team so… Read more »
I agree
I thought this when we bought him. I think he was a great purchase. But he is no Kane, Haaland, Aguero, Drogba, Henry etc which are the type of strikers you need to win titles.
I still don’t see any player in our squad hitting 25-30 goals a season.
I also thought he was a good purchase, I still do, but I never thought he’d be the be all and end all striker for us. I expected we’d get one more striker for him as Jesus to complement each other. I hope this happens this summer.
All the players look physically and mentally shot, this long season with the World Cup in the middle has been a disaster and there are more bloody internationals in June. The first preseason game is a month after that on July 19th. When are these players supposed to get a break? Players are being pushed to their limit and Manchester city are the only team to have so many top quality players that they can rotate without a drop in performance, which is why they have won the league. I hope we can get a positive result at the Emirates… Read more »
City didn’t win the league, we gave it to them. Been a good season on the whole, been really proud of this team but the last few games have been so disappointing. Hopefully do some good recruitment over the summer and we can push on next season. COYG
We have nothing to play for now, I hope we play other personnel in the last game. Ever since world cup injury, all I’ve seen Gabriel Jesus do is fall. We need a centre forward, you can say what you want but it’s clearer than day light
No one will remember us finishing second. They will remember us bottling an 8-goal lead to Man City.
If MA cannot learn from this, then bringing in new players in the summer is pointless.
8 point lead
Don’t think Arsenal will ever overtake Man city with some of these ex-employees
It is clear that Arsenal do not have a creative player who can keep the ball in possession. Odegaard is far from that. He acts like he’s playing futsal. Edu and Arteta should strengthen the competition in that position.
It’s been a great season so far as we’ve overachieved but this game shows that both Arteta and the team have a lot of rooms for improvement. As much as our bench quality need upgrade, Arteta needs better in-game management. In first half we virtually play with 10 men as Kiwior rarely had any touch; we overloaded the right without any threat, playing Partey at RB crippled our wing play as well as losing his penetrating passes and that lasted the entire game. It’s a shame that our dynamism and fighting spirit couldn’t last long enough to push City all… Read more »
Win win tonight. City the title and Forest stay up. Such a sad and pathetic end to the season. Gutless bottle jobs who don’t give a fuck to those who pay out a small fortune to watch them every week. Always felt sorry for Emery -as his name has been mentioned on this thread – as we never bought the players he wanted
It’s easy to slag people off when sat behind a computer isn’t it. I doubt you would be *big man* enough to say it to their faces though!
This reply is not supportive of PTAFC’s post, however you do understand that everything you’re reading here is in an online comments section for a blog site – not a real-time transcript of a meeting in the pub?
Its hard to defend all the criticism being thrown our way. We had a great season etc etc but there’s no way around the fact we bottled this badly.
Partey looks like what happened to the basketball players in Space Jam when they just lost all their ability.
“city were quickest out of the traps…”
Well it hasn’t ruined the season for me. Sure I am disappointed the team run out of steam but hey it’s not the end of world, no one died. I prefer to look at it in the context of, the team additions last summer improved us to such an extent we nearly won the league. Huge improvement on last year and totally unexpected. So with some more good additions this summer and don’t forget we can now offer CL football to new signings, well perhaps next year we can go one better still. At the end of the day city… Read more »
WOW…was planning to watch but fell asleep half an hour b4 the match..Judging from all the comments here, seems to be a blessing in disguise, coz we must have played really shit…:) Now having been spared a double whammy of punishment s of staying up late / sacrificing my beauty sleep to see Arsenal play shit…I am going to seek a downloadable version of the match, enjoy the game , and judge for myself because it appears as though whatever goodwill this team has accumulated over the past 8 months, seems to have evaporated very quickly with most of the… Read more »
Why do we always bottled towards end of season? I don’t understand. History always repeat itself.