I normally only post following Premier League games, but this one deserves an extra piece of work. And for all the wrong reasons! Because the abysmal defeat at Nottingham Forest was as horrendous as last week's against Manchester City.
Despite an admittedly much changed team, I can offer not one single crumb of comfort to you. All over the pitch, Arsenal came off second best to a well-drilled Forest side who have their own up-and-coming young manager, and had the man of the match in young right back Spence - who must surely, along with right winger Johnson, be playing in the Premier League next season.
The extremely commendable #NoMoreRed campaign to combat knife crime meant that Arsenal played in an all-white kit for the first time that I can recall. However, it seemed to me that a 90-minute brain fade meant that this fact hadn't registered in the players' heads, as pass after pass ended up at the feet of a red-shirted player. I can't find a stat for passing accuracy, but despite 67% possession it felt embarrassingly low, and I cannot recall a single shot on target from an utterly feeble and toothless Arsenal side.
Let's look at what went wrong. And that started with the line-up - although it's difficult to lay too much the blame for that at the feet of the manager bearing in mind the hand he was dealt, and bearing in mind that Arsenal have to face Liverpool twice, and That Lot, over the next week or so:
- Leno for Ramsdale, who was rested; fair enough, and the German did well, made a couple of very good saves and was powerless to prevent the winning goal
- Cedric for Tomiyasu, who had a slight calf injury. Cedric is second choice right-back, but he's nowhere close to the Japanese quality-wise. Atletico Madrid are interested in Cedric, apparently - and I'll be happy to drive him to Heathrow after that showing
- White kept his place. Well, with the alternative being Pablo Mari, that's understandable
- Holding for the suspended Gabriel. Holding had as bad a game in an Arsenal shirt as I can remember
- Tavares for the rested Tierney. And following a nightmare half hour of which Freddy Kruger would have been ashamed, he was hooked in favour of the man he'd replaced. Whilst Tierney wasn't brilliant himself, he at least managed to find a man in the right colour shirt occasionally. And for all the promise that Tavares has shown whilst he was in the side, this should serve as a wake-up call as regards attitude. It's embarrassing to get hooked midway through the first half, but young Nuno was by far the worst of a pretty pathetic bunch, and Arteta clearly felt that he had to do something
- Midfield - and this was the central issue (no pun intended). With Thomas Partey having departed for AFCON (along with Mohammed Elneny), Granit Xhaka out following a positive Covid test, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles inexplicably allowed to leave on loan so early in the Transfer Window, all Arsenal could muster in there was Sambi Lokonga, who for reasons I cannot fathom hasn't kicked a ball in anger in well over a month, and young Charlie Patino, of whom so much is expected but who was shown up as nowhere near ready for First Team football. They were completely overrun
- Martin Odegaard kept his place, due to ESR's slight groin issue. He had very little opportunity to impose himself on the game, and dropping back into central midfield to support is not something that I feel he is comfortable doing
- Up front, one would have expected more of both Martinelli and Saka, who kept their places in the side. Saka was easily Arsenal's most dangerous player, but himself didn't create nearly enough. And Martinelli was put in the shade by Spence, who was more than a match for him in skill, pace and - unforgivably - attitude
- Eddie Nketiah in place of Lacazette. And in this game we saw precisely why Eddie is not good enough to play up front for Arsenal. He was unable to hold the ball up, made very little of what service he received, and missed Arsenal's best chance with a limp misdirected header from a Saka cross
- As far as substitutions were concerned, see my comments on Tierney above. Laca couldn't make any difference late on as he replaced poor overwhelmed Charlie Patino, and it was impossible to fathom why, when in desperate need of a goal. Arteta should choose to bring on Kolasinac at right back with a couple of minutes to go. Unless as a signal to the Board about the paucity of resources?
What this does indicate is precisely that. That whilst Arsenal's best XI is good enough to go toe to toe with the best that England has to offer - as we saw last week - there's nowhere near enough depth in the squad to deal with absences. Arteta has suggested that Arsenal will be active again in this Transfer Window, and the Forest display indicated how urgent that is. The next three games are central to Arsenal's season, and they suddenly look totally exposed and unprepared for those looming tasks.
I'm not going to go into too much detail regarding the game itself. As you'll be aware, Arsenal were as poor this weekend as they were good last weekend. So poor, in fact, that I think I actually fell asleep for a short while during the first half. And despite whatever rocket Arteta put up them at half time nothing much improved. On loan Villa striker Kienan Davis, who has looked utterly useless whenever I've seen him play, was allowed to look like Romelu Lukaku, and when he was hooked - exhausted to be fair - the experienced Grabban replaced him and put Arsenal out of their misery late on with a goal that summed up Arsenal's day. Ball lost in midfield, sprung on the break, defenders not in the right position to deal with a simple cross, and that was that. No coming back. Well played,Forest.
There's a fair chance now, by the way, that Arsenal will have just two games in the whole of February. Apart from losing the opportunity to win a trophy, this shows how bare the table is. No Europe and no FA Cup, and with Liverpool in the League Cup semi final the odds are stacked against whoever is left standing over the next few days for those games. We're not used to this at all, and it's bloody depressing I can tell you!
Still, there's a chance or three for redemption over the next week or so. But much to be done. And literally all the optimism from last week has been sucked out of us. Fingers crossed - more in hope than expectation now - for the next three games.
I should mention, by the way, that I popped down to see my local team play on Saturday. And congratulations to Boreham Wood, who put in a spirited display to defeat an admittedly terrible AFC Wimbledon side and reach the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history. From the moment that their first goal went in, they were in complete control.
Bournemouth away is their reward, and that'll be much more difficult - but I wish them the best of luck. They are a proper community club who are on the up, and once more challenging for promotion. I hope, for the sake of the town and of the numerous friends who go to watch them every week, that we'll see them plying their trade in League Two next season. A season ticket at Meadow Park is looking quite tempting at the moment. Wood Army!?!
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