Listen to Flashscore News!
Selected editorial stories, including this article, are also available as audio. Listen and follow on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
It was always going to be a tall order for Mikel Arteta's side, given that in four of their last five visits to the City Ground, they'd not even managed to score.
No goals in four out of five visits to the City Ground for Arsenal
Arsenal had got the better of their opponents of late in any event though, being unbeaten in the last six Premier League matches between the two sides. Indeed, a win for Forest would be their first against the Gunners in the league since May 2023.
Since that victory, Arsenal have scored 10 in their fixtures against the Tricky Trees, and conceded only two.
The need for Oliver Glasner to take the North Londoners' scalp was also obvious, as the Austrian had only overseen one league win since leaving Crystal Palace and moving to Forest.
With owner Evangelos Marinakis not known for his patience, a poor performance in the Super Sunday game wasn't likely to satiate the Greek, and the pressure was therefore on both teams, albeit in different ways.
Arsenal dominance
Both managers had made two changes to their starting XIs, with Murillo making his 100th Premier League appearance for the hosts.
To say that the visitors were on top in the early stages of the game would've been a massive understatement, given that Arsenal had seen 80% of the ball in the opening quarter hour.
Despite such dominance, it was actually Forest who had the first effort at goal, when Dan Ndoye let fly, only to see his shot miss the target.
The hosts were struggling badly with their distribution, which led to unrest on the terraces, but when players such as Nicolas Dominguez and Neco Williams can only provide passing stats of 63.6% and 69.6%, respectively, it's little wonder that the locals would verbalise their dissatisfaction.
Disappointing Delap
To put their below-par showings into context, Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa posted figures of 91.1% and 97.6%.
It wasn't just the lack of coherence in passing terms that stifled any Forest creativity either.
Liam Delap contested 16 one-on-one duels but won only six of them, and Xaver Schlager was involved in another 16, winning nine.
Guimaraes' 12 one-on-ones saw him complete 10 successfully, and though neither side had managed a shot on target before half-time, if anyone was going to open the scoring, you felt it would be the Gunners for the sheer fact that they were much more purposeful in their offering.
Catch up on all of the Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal match stats here!
No shots on target in the first half
One area that both Arteta and Glasner need to look at going forward is the lack of goals in the first halves of games that their respective teams have played.
After another failure in the opening 45 here, both teams have now not been able to score against an opponent in five of their seven Premier League games this season.
James McAtee could've done better with his two shots in a minute just after half-time, though the Forest man was at least putting in a reasonable shift for his side.
Two chances created, possession won back on five separate occasions, two duels won from three attempted... the 24-year-old could hold his head high, even if his contribution wasn't a match-winning performance.
Gyokeres' failure
Teammate Liam Delap still looks like a fish out of water, and his £50m hire by the club could be the one decision that will come back to haunt Glasner.
Just one shot on target, only one aerial duel won from six attempts... despite his considerable physicality and supposed striking prowess, Delap's headless chicken impression for the most part did him no favours whatsoever.
Another striker struggling for form, Viktor Gyokeres, didn't enter the fray until the 65th minute, but if Arteta had hoped he would prove to be the difference maker, he was sorely mistaken.
Just 12 touches and one shot - off target - were the sum total of his 24 minutes on the pitch, and with each passing performance, the Swedish international is getting closer to the Emirates Stadium exit door.
Unstoppable from Madueke
With Arsenal again dominating possession after the break, the only real surprise was that it took until the 80th minute for Noni Madueke to score the winner.
It was a goal worth waiting for, with the England international driving in off the wing before unleashing an unstoppable effort. Coincidentally, the goal was his first since scoring against Glasner's Palace side last May.
A late flurry from Forest was never going to trouble a back line that didn't have to win any tackles all afternoon, and that's another damning indictment of Glasner's side. At the very least, they need to be competitive.
Though it was far from Arsenal's best performance of 2026/27, too, who knows how important the three points will be come the end of the season.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high-profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
