Arsenal lifeless in attack again as draw with Nottingham Forest effectively ends Premier League title hopes | OneFootball

Arsenal do not look capable of finding solutions to key absences in attack

Your matchday briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Simon Collings

Sign up

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A familiar performance from Arsenal and they left the City Ground with a familiar feeling.

A goalless draw for Arsenal, coupled with Liverpool’s victory over Newcastle, means the gap at the top is now 13 points.

Not with an attack like this, anyway. Arsenal, once again, looked blunt going forward and they could not open Nottingham Forest up.

Arteta’s side finished the game with 65 per cent possession and 13 shots on goal - but only one of those was on target.

Other than set-pieces, they simply did not look like scoring and Arteta will be desperate to get some of his forwards back.

Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are out for the rest of the season, but Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli should be back next month at some stage. On this evidence, the pair’s return cannot come soon enough.

Arteta largely stuck with the side that lost to West Ham on Saturday, making just one change as Jorginho replaced Thomas Partey at the base of midfield.

It meant Mikel Merino started as an emergency No9 for the second game on the spin, with Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard flanking him.

Nwaneri was the brightest spark of an attack lacking any threat, but it said a lot about Arsenal’s first half that their best moment came from left-back Riccardo Calafiori.

The Italian made a great turn in the box and after spinning left fly, however the ball cannoned off the post and to safety.

Arsenal look set to fall short in the title race for a third consecutive season

Mike Egerton/PA Wire

It was all part of a wild 45 minutes for Calafiori, which was not in keeping with the tame game. Inside three minutes he was booked. He had a penalty shout waved away after Callum Hudson-Odoi went down.

Calafiori was also playing almost as a striker when Arsenal had the ball, pushing right up alongside Merino. Desperate times and all that.

Arteta hooked Calafiori at half time, perhaps unwilling to play with 10 men for the sixth time in the Premier League this season, and on came Kieran Tierney.

The Scot, who is set to leave on a free in the summer, offered some threat by launching crosses into the box. The issue was, nobody was on the end of them.

Arsenal’s best chances came from set-pieces. Merino’s header was well saved by Matz Sels and Tierney headed just wide from another.

That, though, was as good as it got from Arsenal - and Forest were not much better at the other end.

David Raya made a smart save from Chris Wood in the second half and William Saliba halted the New Zealander with a huge tackle.

Forest were largely happy with the point at the full-time whistle, though, and their Champions League dreams are alive and well.

They are six points off Arsenal in second, but crucially the gap to Newcastle in sixth now stands at six points.

As for Arsenal, Arteta said before this game he would give up on the title “over my dead body”. It looks like, however, there is no longer any life in Arsenal’s title charge.

The bigger fear, though, is if there’s any life in their attack.