HERE was another desperate indictment of Arsenal’s inability to sign a striker in January.
After Mikel Arteta’s bare-bones society failed to score for a third time in four matches, it looks as though the Gunners will struggle to finish second in a one-horse race.
Ethan Nwaneri was a bright spark for the GunnersGetty
GettyIt was another frustrating match for Mikel Arteta[/caption]
APMikel Merino provided little in attack[/caption]
A point away against Nuno Espirito’s Champions League-chasing Nottingham Forest – who are unbeaten at home since September – is not a terrible result in itself.
But with midfield man Mikel Merino struggling as a false nine, there was precious little prospect of Arsenal scoring on the banks of the Trent.
Since their 5-1 pasting of Manchester City, the Gunners have only managed to score against the whipping boys of Leicester City.
And in defence of Merino, it was not as if Arteta’s team created any chances for him to miss.
For a match between the second and third best teams in England, this was extremely poor.
Riccardo Calafiori fired against the inside of a post early on but until a late flurry of goalmouth action, this was a dismal affair.
Arsenal must attempt to find some inspiration before their Champions League campaign restarts against PSV Eindhoven in Holland on Tuesday because this was depressingly flat.
Arteta’s men look tired and weary, their raft of injuries to attacking players seriously taking its toll.
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While Forest fans sang about being champions of Europe 45 years ago, and Arsenal sang about being champions of England 20-odd years ago, there was precious little to shout about in the here and now.
While three straight away defeats had bruised Forest’s hopes of Champions League football, they had been red-hot at the City Ground – pasting Brighton 7-0 here the last time out.
Arsenal’s home defeat by West Ham had snuffed out their faint title hopes – and Merino continued as a makeshift centre-forward.
Even without silverware to play for, there are always records to be broken.
And when Arsenal full-back Calafiori and Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic were booked inside the first three and a half minutes, it was the earliest instance of two yellow cards in a Premier League game since 2012.
Early on, it was much as predicted – Arsenal with plenty of the ball, Forest threatening on the counter.
Calafiori was hogging the limelight – almost conceding a penalty when he was beaten for pace by Callum Hudson-Odoi, clipping the winger on his way down, then turning Nicolas Dominguez in the Forest box and drilling a shot against the inside of the post.
That effort was greeted with strangled cries from the Gooners at the opposite end of the ground.
While plenty of full-backs have doubled as central midfielders, since Pep Guardiola came up with that idea, it is rare to see a left-back continually popping up at centre-forward.
But that appeared to be Calafiori’s novel dual role – and in the absence of an authentic No 9, necessity was the mother of invention for Arteta.
Or perhaps the Italian wasn’t actually supposed to be bombing forward all the time – because, at the interval, Arteta withdrew the only interesting player in the first half, in favour of Kieran Tierney.
It was scrappy and disjointed contest, with an inordinate amount of misplaced passes disappearing off the pitch entirely.
Even Arsenal’s mastery of set-pieces has been on the wane lately, although Tierney went closer with a header from an Odegaard corner.
As the tumbleweed swept across the pitch, Forest finally launched their first attack of the second half, the roof almost coming off the Trent End when Nuno’s men won a corner.
Soon, Gibbs-White slotted a pass through to Chris Wood, whose shot was pushed away by David Raya – and, 69 minutes in, we had our first meaningful save of the match.
Wood soon had another sniff at goal but was cleaned out by a William Saliba slide tackle – yet the linesman flagged for offside, just in case anyone had any ideas about getting excited by this.
Ryan Yates, on as a sub, won a free-kick on the edge of the box when he was clattered by Merino.
It was desperate enough for Arteta to call Raheem Sterling from the bench, in place of Ethan Nwaneri, who had been well shackled by Forest left-back Neco Williams.
The former England winger has been hopelessly devoid of inspiration since arriving on loan from Chelsea last summer.
Martin Odegaard appeared to have the best chance of the night but his shot was acrobatically cleared by Murillo – yet again it was offside.
Forest finished the stronger side, bombing the Arsenal box with crosses in the dying minutes but of all the 0-0 draws you could witness, few could be quite as 0-0 as this one.
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