Arsenal non-performance still just enough against a Forest side making a quietly sh*t start

A funny old game of the funny old game at the City Ground ended in perhaps the most predictable possible result, left both teams able to draw upon meaningful positives but also perhaps both feeling less rather than more certain about their prospects for the season ahead.

Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest – the Gunners’ 18th one-goal win since the start of last season – was secured late on by Noni Madueke. He was the best of Arsenal’s attacking players on the day after replacing the barely-there Ebere Eze at half-time.

We say best of Arsenal’s attackers, but to be honest the phrase we used in our notes was ‘least sh*t’ and that’s probably more accurate. Even his effort, the very best Arsenal could muster across 90-plus minutes of huffing and puffing, was headed directly for Matz Sels’ midriff until a whacking great deflection changed its and the match’s course significantly.

It’s a win, then, that sits squarely in Hallmark of Champions territory for an Arsenal side who looked tired and short on ideas throughout but never gave up their defensive solidity until a few frantic moments as Forest finally abandoned caution in the final minutes.

But these kinds of afternoons, where Arsenal have all of the ball but have to work extravagantly hard to do anything much with it, are becoming a touch too frequent. If nothing else, it’s become increasingly clear how those unable to go conventionally toe-to-toe with the Gunners can hope to stifle them.

The more they struggle against what was today a Red Wall of a low block from Forest, the more they’ll face them. And they already face enough of them to think that they really should have come up with some less stressful solutions by now.

Bukayo Saka is still mired in Not The Player He Was territory, Martin Odegaard was ineffective, and most damning of all there was no real tangible difference to proceedings whether the line was led by Kai Havertz or Viktor Gyokeres.

Madueke at least brought a directness and intent that was lacking elsewhere. There was obvious fortune about his goal, but at least he bought that raffle ticket.

For Forest, on the other hand, their quietly terrible start to the season continues despite a perfectly decent and committed performance. They would have been good value for their point had it come either via a 0-0 or late, late equaliser. Play this well every week, and they’ll be absolutely fine.

Problem there, of course, being that there’s only so much generosity of that kind that can be given for a narrow and vaguely unlucky defeat against the champions when you’ve a) still not scored a home league goal this season and b) have just lost back-to-back games against Coventry and Crystal Palace.

In four home league games this season, Forest already have three 1-0 defeats against teams from every corner of the table as well as a goalless draw against angst-ridden Spurs. It’s not a great look. And the next three league visitors here are Manchester City, Chelsea and Brighton.

Forest end the weekend in the bottom three, along with fellow quietly-sh*t Sunderland and noisily-sh*t Tottenham, who at least have the chance to escape that spot if they can do what Forest couldn’t at home against Coventry tomorrow night.

There were and are genuine positives. Liam Delap had an excellent game as a scrap-feeding leader of the line after what must have been an unpleasant week spent stewing on last week’s extraordinary miss at Palace. He even created one chance with a quick-thinking, quicker-acting throw-in that, had Chris Wood still been the 24/25 version rather than whatever he is now, would’ve gone down as better than any of the howitzers his dad launched into panicked Premier League defences back in the day.

There was also a magnificent entirely self-created late chance for Murillo to instantly steal a goal-of-the-season award only a few hours after Diego Gomez appeared to have ended that particular debate.

We love Murillo. The very existence of him is an antidote to the worst nullifying qualities of Your Modern Football of which today was such an often tedious example. He’s the product of an experiment in which someone apparently asked ‘What if Erik Lamela were a centre-back?’ and then heroically decided ‘Cristian Romero’ was just too lazy and basic an answer.

He surged into the Arsenal box in the closing minutes here before double ball-rolling his way past a static Declan Rice and shooting narrowly high and wide. It would have been a spectacular goal that Forest deserved but the game didn’t.

Ultimately, if one had to draw a tentative conclusion from what was not the most thrilling of occasions, it’s that in the end both teams did, for good and for ill, what they generally do.