Nottingham Forest visited Ashburton Grove for a 2 pm kickoff (London time) on Sunday, fresh off their 1-0 defeat of Liverpool last weekend in the League. To think they should be flying high would not be a surprise. Likewise, after Arsenal’s draw at Southampton last weekend, and our defeat in the Europa League in Eindhoven, it would be a fair shout to wonder if the Arsenal squad would be down, or thirsting for recovery. A 5-0 thrashing of the team propping up the League table by a resplendent Arsenal said “thirsting for recovery” writ large.
This will be a short review, as just as halftime clocked at 7:45 am here in California I had a violent, 5-hour vertigo attack. I didn’t get to see the second half until mid-afternoon, and then I had to rewatch the first half because I couldn’t remember what happened. Apologies. And as the fundamental story of this game was that Arsenal scorched Forest’s earth, I’ll be focusing on our play, players, and what it means for us to have played so well (“say we’re top of the league!”).
Forest had something like 3 or 4 good moments in 90 plus minutes, all of which seemed to stem from mistakes by Arsenal: a wayward pass at the back from Gabi led to a tame shot by Lingard blocked by White. Another poor pass by Xhaka led to a shot by a Forest player, but it was likewise tame and easily saved by Ramsdale. And really, that was about it. In all the time I’ve been watching Arsenal I can’t recall a team that offered as little as Forest did on this day.
So, to Arsenal. Our first goal came in the 5th minute. Tomi intercepted a pass deep in their half on the left and passed to Gabigol. Gabi cut across the middle of the pitch and rifled a pass to Saka near the top right corner of the box, and kept on running. Saka timed a beautiful curling pass to perfection for Gabi to stoop and head past Henderson into the bottom right corner of goal (Arsenal 1-0 Forest). Wonderfully worked, and the dedication of the goal to Pablo Marí after brought a tear to the eye.
We played some attractive football the rest of the half, but with 10 men behind the ball Forest’s rearguard action was stout and effective. Shortly after our goal Jesús curled a shot just wide of Henderson’s far post, but otherwise we just couldn’t make the final pass, or gather our efforts into a pattern that unlocked them. Perhaps the best moment was down the left when Xhaka cut back for Martinelli whose slightly scuffed shot was cleared off the line by a Forest defender. The other two moments of note were Saka having to be subbed off for Nelson in the 27th minute, and Xhaka being hammered by a tackle that could have done the same for him right before the half.
When I could finally watch it, the second half was some of the most beautiful football I’ve seen us play this year. Four goals, three of which came in an 8-minute span of domination starting just after play resumed, all of which were different and all of which were top, top class. Of the four, Partey’s curving ballistic missile of a shot (a repeat of his beauty against that little team from Middlesex earlier in the year) from a Nelson layoff in the 57th minute could be the pick of the litter (Arsenal 4-0 Forest). But Nelson’s first (in the 49th minute), after fine linkup play by Party, Xhaka, and Jesús, might have been even better. After getting the ball passed through to him by Jesús from the middle of the box, he completely fooled two Forest defenders with a fake shot, had his real shot saved by Henderson, and returned the rebound with an arrow into the top corner of the net above two other defenders (Arsenal 2-0 Forest). It was Nelson’s first goal for Arsenal in two years, and it’s clear the whole team was chuffed for him.
Both Nelson’s second and Ødegaard’s to finish the scoring had the kind of intricate play we’ve come to love from our team. Three minutes after his first goal Nelson started the move deep in our defensive half, and after a series of passes that brought Jesús and Mø to interplay a sweet short pass away from goal allowed Jesús to chip the ball into Nelson’s path; he scored with his near foot, which was certainly a difficult option (Arsenal 3-0 Forest). Mø’s goal, coming 12 minutes from time, was again the result of intricate passing and quick feet. Jesús again was the provider, feeding Mø in the middle of the box to shift the ball left, then laser it in to the top corner before Henderson could react (Arsenal 5-0 Forest).
And that was it. The game finished without incident, though our subs reduced our fluidity and, I thought, exposed that Vieira really needs to hit the weight room in the next couple years. I think the MOTM was Partey, even in the face of Nelson’s brace. His deep passing, either through the defense or on angles around it, was brilliant; his pass to Xhaka for Nelson’s first was inch-perfect, and the nicest pass I saw all day. Another excellent player was Tomi, who half the time lined up as an auxiliary midfielder, with our defense playing a back 3. It gave us so much control of the ball I tip my hat to MA8 for using it in this game. There was a rare Cédric sighting; I thought he played well, as did Tierney after coming on.
No one had a bad game, even Jesús played well despite not bringing his shooting boots. Two assists will do that for you, and the number of times he tracked back to defend deep in Arsenal’s defensive third was impressive. Saliba and Gabriel were imperious, in spite of some small mistakes; White worked effectively with Saka and Nelson, in turn, and was consistently disposessing or altering the runs being made by Forest on their few breaks. Xhaka continues to impress, using space beautifully; he actually did some hesitation moves and shoulder dips that enabled him to beat his defender, not something I associate with him.
Our biggest worry out of today is Saka, for the Chelsea game. I have to believe Nelson did enough to start against Zurich this coming Thursday, which will give Saka an entire week to be treated and get into the bus stop with fire in his eyes. Also for Zurich, I think we should rest Partey for Sambi, and if Mo’neny is back start him instead of Xhaka (both can be retained on the bench in case it gets skittish). It was clear by the timing of their substitutions that Tomi, Saliba and Martinelli were being withdrawn with an eye to (at least) the midweek fixture.
And so it goes. We’re top of the league! I was so happy to watch the second half of this game, almost as happy as I was to no longer be nauseous from the vertigo. We have four more games before there’s a break in the season for some event happening in a desert during November and December. Win all four and we’re top of the league at the break, top of our EL group (thus avoiding extra games and CL drop-downs), and one game further on in our quest for the League Cup. Not a bad place to be with many of our players NOT heading to the desert, able to heal, rest, and train ahead of the resumption of the League in the festive period.
Cheers scruz. I guess the clocks didn’t change in the US. Only way I can explain the 3pm kick-off is if you go by time difference from you based on the day before the match. 😀
Great report.
Good to be back to playing superbly for practically the whole match, that was much needed.
I have to admit I wasn’t very confident at half-time as the end of the first half wasn’t so good and recent second halves had been shit. Scoring straight after the restart was a tonic.
I probably shouldn’t been up already but I guess I’m still buzzing from a great match and a great day out. Top of the league!
Cheers scruz!
Glad to hear you are feeling better as well.
And I hope you are fully recovered now and can have a decent rest.
Scruz,
Firstly, so sorry to hear about your vertigo and hope you’re fit and well now. I’m no doctor but it may be that you are too tall or you are not used to Arsenal being top of the table ! It’s a remarkable report especially given your circumstances.. Life is never dull for you is it !
I had the great pleasure of watching the game with CER and friends which heightened the enjoyment even more . Pre-match I also had the great pleasure of bumping into David Dein. I’d never seen him before in anything but a suit but he was casually attired in his Arsenal gear. He is a charming man, who loves the club with a passion and he fervently hopes he will get Arsene to return soon .
Arsene would have loved this brand of football. Arteta really has put his stamp on the team and they controlled this game for almost all the 90 minutes although they had a wobbly period just before the interval. Gabriel was imperious apart from a very stupid pass but White made a heroic block to preserve our lead.
I agree that Partey was MOTM although Nelson and Odegaard wouldn’t be far behind and Saliba was really imposing . Partey and Odegaard set the rhythm for the team and Partey has now become exactly the player we thought we were signing. He can give himself 9/10 this season . The team found a rhythm and physical reserves that made our pessimism about playing a team anchored to the foot of the table look, in retrospect very unnecessary.
We have beaten the Chavs on the last two visits to the Bus Stop . Let’s make it a hat-trick
In the last drinks, pre-match, I opined that nothing less than 4-0 would be acceptable so 5-0 will do nicely. Goal difference may be valuable at season’s end so a few more spankings are required along the way.
UTA.
Nice work, Scruz. Asses indeed!
A head spinningly good read of a head spinningly good performance, scruz. Jokes aside, I hope you quickly make a full recovery from that nasty symptom.
You’ll get no argument from me choosing Thomas Partey as MotM. He was imperious and practically ran the game throughout the 90 minutes. Forest will be regretting the time and sppace they gave him. If only all our opponents were as generous!
Nelson’s performance, and goals, were an unexpected bonus. Hopefully he will maintain that form. Another bonus was the demonstration of the versatility of our defenders with first, Cedric giving a competent performance as Tomi’s replacement at LB, switching to RB when Saliba was replaced by KT3 and Ben White moving seamlessly inside to partner Gabriel at CB. An embarrassment of riches we could do with emulating in midfield.
There were two disappointments yesterday. Firstly we didn’t get a limping Saka off early enough and that delay may come back to bite us next Sunday. Secondly Vieira looked well short of the standard required whether playing wide or centrally. That fella has a lot of work to do. FL8 proved that you can do it though. In the summer after his first season at Arsenal he bulked up and wasn’t being pushed off the ball anymore by anyone. Get on those weights, Fabio,
The good old Grauniad has a fine piece of analysis on Gabriel Jesus and it explains why despite a comparative drought he is working out very well for us
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/oct/30/gabriel-jesus-is-not-the-perfect-striker-but-he-may-be-just-perfect-for-arsenal
Thanks scruz, a great report of a great performance. Some enjoyable goals and a clean sheet. I’d love to be still top at the World Cup break but regardless of that it has been a fantastic first third of the season thanks to SuperMik and the boys.
and props for your latin title, scruz, but you do know that Latin script was originally only written in CAPITALS? e.e.cummings would never have survived in Ancient Rome.
Thanks Scruz. Considerable bouncebackability to come back from that vertigo to pen that report. You were obviously listening to U2 on your flight home. It was a joyous afternoon on the North Bank as we finally gave someone the thumping our attacking play deserved. Five glorious goals and so many good performances. It was sweet that it was Forest after they turfed us out of the FA Cup last season, a game I was there to see as DJed Spence tortured our left side and led to a visibly dizzy Nuno Tavares being subbed before half time to spare him further punishment. Spence moved to Spurs where he has played ..checks notes …zero minutes so far this season.
This was another key game. After our mini wobble of dropping two points away at Southampton and then losing to PSV we needed to show similar bouncebackability to our author. Boy did we do that in spades. BtM, currently soaking up the sun in the South Pacific has told me of his admiration for Reiss Nelson. It was so good to see him grab his chance so well yesterday. Saliba was imperious again, Jesus magnificent despite not scoring and, barring a couple of errors at the back which we mopped up, pretty much a 9/10 effort as we totally outplayed Forest.
There were two bad fouls in the game, the first on Saka early in the game which received no card and the second on Xhaka which did get a yellow, but looked to me like a red. It was two footed, reckless and landed straight on his ankle. MOTD decided neither of these were worth showing. Go figure.
FC Zurich to close out top spot in our EL group (Ihope Reiss Nelson starts) and then onto the Bus Stop in Fulham where, as TTG says, we have developed a recent taste for winning. Chelsea were woeful against Brighton. Let’s continue their pain.
A truly lovely afternoon out in North London.
I hope you are fully recovered, Scruz. Exemplary reporting above and beyond in the circumstances.
Bath, the same thought about Saka occurred to me at the time. He was a limping passenger for 10-15 mins before he was taken off. No reason to keep him on. The sooner he could be treated the better.
Agree with all that Partey was MoTM. Give the man the space, which Forest did, he will boss the game, which he did. But high marks all around. Save for a couple of Fred Kano passes in the first half, everyone played well, though I think Ramsdale was off picking up his unemployment money.
Wishing you a speedy recovery scruz!
Excellent summary of the match. Concise yet comprehensive.
Very happy to see Reiss taking his chances. In terms of pure technical abilities has always shown himself equal to the best of the rest of the academy graduates, hopefully a season of injury free regular chances and consequent consistency will raise his own self confidence.
All the goals were superb, and Martinelli — who had started his Arsenal career with a few surprisingly competent (for a young winger) headed finish — showcased again how to complement abilities with bravery. And as many predicted here, once Partey’s first long range goal went in against the Spuds, we can expect a few more of those. They definitely work on the construction of this goal where the right sided forward player drags the defense with him, sets up a rolling pass just outside the box on the right hand side for TP5 to run in and attack. It was such a magnificent finish.
After a few jittery moments in the last couple of matches Saliba was back to his imperious best. In the interview to a Norwegian TV channel he expressed disappointment about last few week’s dip in performance and vows to become more consistent. No complacency there. 🙂
Let’s carry on the form and confidence against Zurich on Thursday!
Thanks scruz and hoping you are feeling better soon if not already. In a critical test of Google Translate I ran your title through their website, and (look away if you are trying to learn Latin), found your meaning to be ..:..::
They came, we saw, we kicked ass
All errors in translation are Google’s
Classics graduate CER will be along in 3, 2, 1
thanks, all, for the good wishes. this one was harder to write than the last one, by far. feeling a lot better than during the vertigo, but still have the equivalent of a bad flu, with the vertigo hovering in the background.
ollie@1 i think that’s when the second half started and we really started playing better 🙂
ttg@4 i crave some dullness right about now. i’d even trade meeting dd for some relative normalcy.
good call on the scoreline, noosa@5.
baff@10 we will bring latin to the modern age, AB HAMO AUT INURIA.
c100@11, U2?
ned@12, i’m in the midst of re-viewing the game. the first tackle on saka got his right foot, and he seemed to shake that off. in minute 9 he drove towards the box into space, and was tackled by kouyaté. you could see him limping off his left immediately after (and it was a fair enough tackle). then, in the 11th minute saka saved a ball over the top from white, at the end line in the box, with his left, which ended up a corner. saka ran off the pitch, and slipped as he went downslope into the hoardings, hung over them a bit, then turned and limped badly upslope. the last straw seemed to be in the 15th when he went down under a challenge at the top of the box that should have been a free kick, except his last second pass connected. he seemed to twist his left ankle, but the replay is inconclusive. the physio came out first at the 16th, looking at his left foot. he was limping before and after he volleyed over henderson’s goal in the 20th. he played on one leg after that; it was obvious to see…and he could do that because on one leg he’s better than most on 2. finally he sat for good in the 26th and was subbed.
i really think it was the downslope twist as he headed for the hoardings that did him in. he should have been off by the 16th, if not the 20th. maybe they needed nelson to warm up?
faustus@14, if you can find a link to that interview post it here.
bt8@15, don’t kid yourself: ex translate eo venit et illuc revertitur (as ee cummings might write).
Haha, true, scruz, the players had set their clock for that time.
And blimey, very detailed anakysis of the Saka timeline. Hope he recovers, I too was surprised that he wasn’t subbed earlier.
I really need to revise my latin….
Hope you’ll keep improving healthwise.
U2 had a song called vertigo. You have heard of U2?
c100@19, nah, i’m just a boy at the end of october who searched all of joshua tree and still haven’t found what i’m looking for. 😉
Scruz@17: bien sûr mon ami, avec plaisir! https://arseblog.news/2022/10/saliba-on-the-win-a-clean-sheet-and-pablo-mari/
thanks, faustus!
Vertigo = Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath, Colosseum and more.
Very eavy, very umble.
UTA.
Thanks scruz, excellent match report! I hope you are getting better now. I think you emphatized a bit too strongly with Forrest which clearly had a joint group vertigo in the second half.
We bounced back the best possible way. Long may it continue 🙂
Under the blood red sky.
COYG
Well done scruz, a dizzying match report.
Sorry to hear about your vertigo attack – feel free to message me if you want to.
Not forgetting The Libertines.
After the PSV game and the Spuds’ failure to beat Sporting Lisbon I was counselling everyone to hope Tottnumb qualify through their CL group . But today as the game approaches and as I read Alexis speaking about how as an Arsenal man he loves beating the Sp**s , the anti- Tottnumb vibe kicks in and I am edging towards wanting Marseille to win tonight . It really wouldn’t b ideal but it would be fun …and we are a much better team than them
TTG @8, I forgot to acknowledge the excellence of the article you linked. It contains a brilliant and entirely accurate observation that for many, if not most, Gooners:
“Pleasure is simply misery deferred.”
Bath,
The author, Jonathan Liew , is a particular favourite of C100, ( with good reason), he is one of the finest sports writers operating in the UK. We deferred quite a lot of misery on Sunday afternoon and if the Spuds stuff up tonight , we may defer even more !
TTG@28: There are a lot of clubs better than the neighbours to worry about dropping down from the CL. Barca and Sevilla for sure, for two. Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Ajaz are another three probables.
Interesting situation in Spud group:
“While currently bottom on six points, two behind leaders Spurs, (Marseille) will progress if they beat Conte’s men. Sporting Lisbon host Eintracht Frankfurt in the other tie, with both sides on seven points.”
Draw in Lisbon and home win in Marseille?
UEFA website predicts the Marseille team will include all four ex- or loanee Arsenal players:
Pau López; Balerdi, Mbemba, Kolašinac; Clauss, Rongier, Veretout, Nuno Tavares; Guendouzi, Harit; Alexis Sánchez
“UEFA.com gives Fantasy Football managers a helping hand by predicting all the UEFA Champions League starting XIs for Matchday 6.”
Not sure how much of a hand it will turn out to be to fantasy managers if the prediction turns out to be wrong, mind you. It does sound a bit chaotic with Kola and Nuno ripping up and down the wings and the Stade Velodrome crowd already whipped into a frenzy. 🎃🎃🎃☠️☠️☠️
I think Kolasinac’s been used on the left of a back three a lot when fit?
Tudor seems to like it.
Nuno Tavares has been off the boil a bit recently, Guendouzi seems more consistent.
So yeah, the four ex-Arsenal (or futur-ex in the case of Tavares) are likely to start.
Either way, however much I hate Marseille, I shall be hoping they win tonight.
I meant ‘like him’, even if maybe he likes that system too.
Well Bailly is back so Kolasinac is not starting.
Bayer Leverkusen, not Atletico Madrid, dropping down to the EL from Group B of the CL, with the Germans getting a point against Bruges and the Spaniards losing to Porto. I think I prefer that.
You and me both, Ned.
Marseilles avoided, too. Ollie.
Heh yeah, just, the useless tossers.
Good tactical summary of our left back situation https://arseblog.com/2022/11/kieran-tierney-left-back-takehiro-tomiyasu/
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