Premier League 2024-25: Arsenal draws against Nottingham Forest in another blow to slim title hopes
Arsenal’s faint title hopes dimmed even further after it was held to a 0-0 draw by Nottingham Forest despite dominating Wednesday’s encounter at the City Ground between the second and third-placed teams in the Premier League.
Arsenal was already 11 points behind runaway leader Liverpool, albeit with a game in hand, before the start of the midweek fixtures and its failure to win on Wednesday leaves its quest looking increasingly unlikely.
Forest remains six points behind Arsenal in third place, keeping up its hopes of Champions League football next season, as it advanced to 48 points although it spent much of the game defending its goal.
It did well to absorb Arsenal’s pressure in the first half, restricting it to no shots on target, although the Gunners were only inches away from opening the scoring in the 24th minute after roving left-back Riccardo Calafiori eased past Forest midfielder Nicolas Dominguez with a clever turn and struck the post with a shot.
Calafiori had been booked in the second minute and came close to giving away a penalty when he appeared to impede Callum Hudson-Odoi’s progress into the Arsenal box in the 22nd minute.
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It was no surprise, despite his positive contributions to its attack, that he did not come back out after the break as Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta preferred not to risk going down to 10 men if Calafiori was booked again.
A dip of the shoulder from Ethan Nwaneri near the end of the first half set up a chance at the near post but it was blocked before the Arsenal attacker could get his effort away.
Makeshift forward Mikel Merino’s 53rd-minute header from Declan Rice’s corner was the visitor’s first effort on target but it was parried by Forest keeper Matz Sels.
Arsenal was full of innovation with its set-piece routines, with Calafiori’s replacement Kieran Tierney heading narrowly wide from another corner soon after.
Forest, with few chances even on the break, took 64 minutes to win its first corner and five minutes later saw top scorer Chris Wood force a routine save out of David Raya in the Arsenal goal.
But it did finish with a late flurry of attacks as the home fans willed it forward although without troubling Raya.
It was a second successive match without a goal for the Gunners after they lost at home to West Ham United at the weekend, while Forest has won one of its last five league outings.
