Modern football is a game of two parts: the first hour or so, dictated by carefully curated gameplans and training ground patterns; and the final half-hour when a flurry of substitutes come on, rigid structures fade away and a match opens at the seams. Arsenal were dire for most of this game at the City Ground, shut out by Nottingham Forest’s red wall. But yet again the power of Mikel Arteta’s “finishers” decided a match.
Noni Madueke was sent on at half-time for Eberechi Eze, who had been statuesque at his station on the left touchline, which, in fairness, is not his position. With the clock ticking towards 80 minutes, Madueke did what Eze hadn’t and drove at Forest’s defence before unleashing a shot, which took a fortunate deflection off Jair Cunha on its way past the helpless Matz Sels. It went down as Arsenal’s only shot on target, and in truth it might have been curling wide.
This was the third game in a row in which Arteta rang the changes in the second half as his team struggled to click, after Leeds last weekend and Lille in midweek. Once again he made a triple substitution on 65 minutes, sending on Jurrien Timber, Mikel Merino and Viktor Gyokeres, and once again a stubborn defence was worn down in the final stages. No Premier League side has generated more goals and assists from the bench since the start of last season.
Forest were excellent in their determination to blunt Arsenal’s attack. Like Eze, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka had little joy, and Oliver Glasner took positives from a performance of cohesion and spirit. Liam Delap was a brilliant nuisance in attack and could have equalised in the final minutes but for Ezri Konsa’s last-ditch block. Murillo nearly scored the goal of the season, dribbling in from the left touchline before curling just over the bar with one of the last kicks. But Forest remain third from bottom after a third successive defeat, and their wait for a first home goal of the season goes on.
Arsenal, meanwhile, stay second, three points behind Manchester City and two ahead of Brighton. Second might be enough for first when City are eventually sanctioned. And even if Arsenal endure more struggles like they did for the majority of this game, strength in depth may prove the difference between the champions and the rest.
“If you look at the quality of our starting XI and bench, it’s absurd,” said Madueke, after a game in which fellow substitutes Max Dowman, Martin Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly weren’t needed. “We know that we’re going to start some [games] and finish some, and for me it’s the same mentality every time: I just want to create or score.
“All 20-something players are elite and of the highest level. It’s great to have that type of competition, you know on the bench you’re ready to have an impact.”
Arteta added: “Some of them played three days ago and some of them will start the next game, and they know that everyone has to be at it. If you are needed after 60 minutes, 45 minutes and sometimes two minutes, we have a squad now that can deliver in moments and we have to use that.”
It had been a desperate game. For those who rail against the hegemony of positional football, who say it’s shackling ingenuity and entertainment, this first half was exhibit A. Arsenal had 74% possession and no shots on target. Gabriel would pass the ball out to Eze on the touchline who would recycle it back into the middle, rinse and repeat.
“Arsenal have been the better team,” said Roy Keane at half-time, and he was right, in the sense that they are literally the better team. But better at what, exactly? Better at keeping the ball away from opposition’s prying toes, perhaps, better at that square pass Declan Rice makes to a centre-back after deciding against a forward ball.
With 331 passes at a completion rate of 91%, Arsenal were certainly better at fluffing their own statistics, although Forest didn’t help themselves: during one of many lulls, Ivorian centre-back Ousmane Diomande passed the ball straight off the pitch, chest high, nowhere near anybody, with the conviction of a man executing a plan only he knew existed.
But when it came to the nuts and bolts of the game, to tackling, to running, to winning duels, it was hard to tell the two sides apart. After 45 stultifying minutes in which neither goalkeeper made a save, it was actually Forest who had taken five of the game’s eight shots.
Rice was particularly impotent playing as the six at the base of midfield. It is a role which showcases very little of his greatest trait, his athleticism, but with Lewis-Skelly on the bench, Guimaraes was given licence to rove forwards with Martin Odegaard. The pair occasionally injected brief moments of speed into Arsenal’s game but no one else found their wavelength. It wasn’t a great surprise to see Eze replaced by Madueke at half-time, but Arsenal met the same problems.
Then came Arteta’s triple change: Merino for Guimaraes, Timber for Ben White, Gyokeres for Havertz. Forest dropped deeper and on 71 minutes, Arsenal produced their best move of the match when Saka played a short pass inside to Odegaard, who slipped in Timber running around the back of the Forest defence. Timber teed up Rice, who slashed a shot over the bar from 12 yards.
But Madueke rode to the rescue, dribbling inside to score after Merino had first forced back Forest’s centre-backs with a dangerous run.
“He’s a special character,” Arteta added of Madueke. “He’s someone who everyone loves in and around the dressing room with the way he connects and talks to people. I think I saw an interview where they were asking our players, ‘Who would you call if you have a problem?’ and some of them said, ‘Noni’, which I was surprised at. But I think it’s a massive credit and explains the kind of character that he is.
“We knew today we wouldn’t score in the first 20, 30 minutes. We were going to face a different Forest because they are extremely well coached, they put like a Christmas tree [formation], there is no space to play. You have to be so neat and tidy. You have to generate a lot of chaos in the box, whether that is an open play or with set-pieces.
“At the end I had the belief that the physical level [of Forest] was going to drop, the spaces will be a little bit bigger, more time to be more efficient. And the finishers delivered.”