Jesus the difference as Arsenal overcome stubborn Forest for vital away win

Nottingham Forest 1 Arsenal 2    
Premier League   
Tuesday 31st January 2024  7.30pm    

What can be said of the first half? At the conclusion, the burning question for me was… I wonder if Bobby Pires brought his boots? Emile Smith Rowe was given a welcome start but Forest’s tactics frustrated all of Arsenal’s attacking players. It’s one thing to have teams visiting the Emirates shutting up shop and content to play for a point. But away? 
 
So much as Arsenal dominated both territory and possession, a tendency to overplay, and a seeming lack of urgency when Forest were caught out of position on their rare forays forward limited the number of chances. When they came they were generally blocked by a red shirt. 
 
In boxing parlance, Forest might have been on the ropes, but Arsenal weren’t actually landing any punches. A lack of willingness to get a shot in immediately when the opportunity arose did not make a convincing argument for the merits of Artetaball.
 
The Gunners had suffered defeat at the City Ground in their previous three visits, and you feared another evening of frustration, and a continuation of the inability to win away from home, their last victory on the road being back in early December against another relegation candidate, Luton Town.
 
Things changed though, as Forest’s Awonyi came on for Wood at half time, and we saw more action at both ends. The home side were trying to contribute more to the game, perhaps realising that a repeat of the first half tactics would likely not see them all the way to full time, given energy levels would surely drop. Goals were flying in at other Premier League grounds and at last it looked like we might finally see one at the City Ground.  
 
Arsenal’s shots were finally causing some genuine danger now – Saka saw a decent effort saved, Jesus hit the post. The attempt to score the perfect goal was all too familiar and fairly frustrating, but after 65 minutes, a quick Zinchenko throw to Jesus saw him put the ball between Matt Turner’s legs from the tightest of angles and the deadlock was mercifully broken. 
 
Forest had been playing more open and paid the price. It got worse for them when Montiel played a bad pass on the halfway line and the resulting turnover saw Jesus tee up Saka to finish with his right foot and double the visitors’ lead. Psychologically it felt vital ahead of Sunday’s match against Liverpool.
 
Life is not always simple for Arsenal – with the clock running down, Forest pulled one back as Saliba was muscled out of a clearing header against Awonyi, and the ball fell nicely for him to beat Raya. 
 
Injury time was predictably fraught, but the Gunners got over the line, and moved above Manchester City in the table, although they’ve played two more matches. It was a relief to see Jesus make a match-winning contribution, although injury concerns hover over him, and much as he is not a prolific goalscorer, he makes an important contribution to the team. 
 
After the game there was a heated exchange between Zinchenko and White, the impression being perhaps that Zinchenko was the one calling out his colleague about something, going by the way that Arteta focused on placating the Ukrainian. Not really sure what that was about, but maybe better done in the dressing room. Still, no harm in seeing a bit of passion in the players. You want them to care enough to speak up if something needs to be done better.
 
Thoughts on the game from a regular reader of the blog, who I’ll call Dr P, which are worth relaying…
“Turner was not great on the first goal but the defending was worse, leaving Jesus unmarked from a throw-in. Several times before in the game players were in widish positions inside the box - it often happens in our game - and they never shoot, always pulling it back - the first time someone did shoot it was a goal. Zinchenko as often the main creative player. We badly need Partey back as this team is quite predictable, a good team but don’t really look or feel like champions at all. Did Turner have any saves to make apart from the two goals? Good to see ESR back but he seems to play in a different rhythm to the rest, like he’s not quite on the same wavelength as the others. He plays one touch whereas the rest so often take a touch then circulate the ball back and round. Zinchenko the exception as you never known what he is going to do. White and Jesus (apart from the couple of dodgy finishes) did well.”
 
Sunday will see a far more open match, nothing like this one. It was encouraging to see Saka finish well with his weaker foot. If he can develop this, he will become even harder to play against. Saliba will hopefully have learned something about competing with physical forwards and Smith Rowe at least got 70 minutes under his belt. I’d certainly be happy enough if he were picked again on Sunday, although if I were to put money on it, Havertz is a more likely pick for Arteta.
 
Seven goals in the last two games sounds like a healthy stat, even if Arsenal haven’t performed to an outstanding level in either match. But hey, at least the goals are going in again, so let’s see if the days of goal droughts are coming to an end.
 
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