Mikel Arteta hailed “special character” Noni Madueke after he fired Arsenal to a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
Madueke came on at half-time and his deflected effort 10 minutes from time was enough for the three points at the City Ground.
The 24-year-old was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s most recent England squad but has produced an impressive response.
“Noni, look at me, a smile on my face because he’s a special character,” Arteta said. “He’s someone very much loved in and around the dressing room, the way he connects, talks to people.
“He’s just a special guy. I think I saw an interview where they were asking a few of our players, ‘Who would you call if you have a problem?’.
“And some of them said Noni, which I was surprised (by).
“But I think it’s a massive credit and explains the kind of person that he is. He’s in a good moment.
“I think after the break, he’s showing something else, another level of anger, another level of conviction as well in his actions, and he’s becoming now decisive in matches, which is what we expect for a player like him.”
Madueke’s goal was Arsenal’s only shot on target in a disjointed performance that lacked attacking quality, although the champions’ ability to grind out a result cannot be questioned.
“I think we have played 11 competitive matches. We won 10. So we’re going to gain the variety of ways to win in many different contexts,” Arteta added.
“We knew we wouldn’t score in the first 20, 30 minutes. We weren’t going to face a different Forest because they are extremely well coached. They put a Christmas tree there. There is no space to play. You have to be so neat and tidy.
“You have to otherwise generate a lot of chaos in the box, whether it is in open play or with set-pieces.
“We did a couple of times and created two big chances. We didn’t even hit the target, which is the difference.
“And the longer the game goes, we say, ‘OK, now we have to play a different game because (at) the moment we start to ramp up our level of frustration’.
“But we got the goal.”
It was a third 1-0 home defeat of the season for Forest, who are struggling to adapt to life under Oliver Glasner, and they have not scored in five home matches in all competitions after missing two big late chances.
This was also a third league defeat in a row and they now sit in the relegation zone after seven games.
“Five interviews, five times the same question. I think that’s the answer,” Glasner said. “It feels very harsh, it feels unfair, but we have to accept it that we are missing some bits.
“Today I think the performance in many parts was really good defensively, was on a top level. Giving them one shot on target, and this one is deflected, and then you lose, it feels even tougher.
“What we are missing is in every single game we have our moments, but then we don’t take them.
“And also today, especially after half-time, when creating very many good situations and then of course you need to score and take the lead.
“And this is what we we can’t do at the moment. And that’s why, at the end, with one situation that always can happen, we are losing the game.
“I have no doubts in what we’re doing because it’s just proven right so often and I’m really confident that we will go to where we want to be.
“We are not there here today, but we will be there.”