Nottingham Forest 4 v Arsenal 2 - FA Cup R3

Sunday 7th January 2018

Emirates FA Cup Third round

at the City Ground, Nottingham

Nottingham Forest (2) 4
Eric Lichaj 20, 44
Ben Brereton 64 pen
Kieran Dowell 85 pen

Arsenal FC (1) 2
Pal Mertesacker 23
Danny Welbeck 79

Attendance: 27,182

Nottingham Forest offloaded their manager Mark Warburton last week, without having a replacement lined up, so Gary Brazil, the head of youth development at the City Ground has stepped up into the first team role in a caretaker capacity. His first game in interim control was a goalless draw at Elland Road against promotion hopefuls Leeds United, a result that Brazil cited as: "a nice foundation to build on."
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager has been handed a three match touchline ban, starting today, for comments he made about the referee Mike Dean, after the Gunners recent away game at West Bromwich Albion.

Half and half scarves. Don't do it kids!

Though to be fair Mr Dean does at times seem to lean somewhat into the realms of being an attention seeking and self aggrandising individual who likes to play up, almost theatrically, in front of the TV cameras, rather than  solely taking on the role as a arbitrator of fair play.
Monsieur Wenger will probably be in even more trouble anytime soon after chastising another referee, Anthony Taylor, on Wednesday night, calling his penalty decision against Arsenal in their 2-2 draw against Chelsea in a Premier League game as "farcical".

While not wanting to appear to be approaching any of the above from anything other than a completely neutral angle, I would have to concur that Eden Hazard did actually 'made the most' of the minimal contact that occurred when he went for a fifty/fifty ball with Héctor Bellerín in the latter incident and as for the former, it's common knowledge that Mike Dean quite often conducts himself in a manner that is an embarrassment to his profession.
But hey! If well paid professional footballers can make mistakes (check out Arsenal's defending at the City Ground today for evidence of that), then it stands to reason that on occasions high profile match officials also will and these things do tend to balance themselves out over a period of time.

For example, in that same Arsenal v Chelsea match, Jack Wilshere was lucky to have avoided being shown a second yellow card before putting Wenger's side in front in the sixty third minute. Shit happens.. and it doesn't necessarily always float in one direction.
In the run up to the game Forest placed a joke about Wenger's ongoing disciplinary situation on their club Twitter feed saying: "Mr Wenger, if you'd like to upgrade your stand ticket to a hospitality package then you can do so by following this link. #NFFC."
As it turned out, the Gunners manager sat in the directors box besides Jans Lehman, holding his head in hands, presumably in case he actually dropped it.

Alas, there is no room for sentiment when it comes to football business and Arsenal's directors need to look no further than their surroundings on the banks of the River Trent this evening, to see first hand what could happen in the long run, when a club hangs on for far too long to their manager, whoever that manager is, based on  his past reputation and former glories. Even Brian Clough's methods had passed their expiry date when he retired (the same year that Forest were relegated from the top flight) and it could be argued, quite convincingly, at this present time, that Arsene Wenger's approach, which was a breath of fresh air from 1997 to 2006, hasn't moved quickly enough with the times to keep Arsenal up to speed with the other 'top clubs' that they are bracketed in with.

Is Wenger too sacred a cow for his paymasters to ever consider slaughtering him? Hypothetically speaking of course, though a good number of Arsenal fans walking across the Trent Bridge tonight, would happily have plunged him over the wall, to meet his fate in the depths of the murky freezing cold water as they headed towards the station.
In old money, three FA Cups in four years would be a remarkable achievement, for any club; but times have moved on for those occupying the upper echelons of the Premier League, and though the most recent of those triumphs came as recently as last season and probably kept Wenger in a job, the complete disregard that he showed to the competition today, fielding what was virtually a stiffs side, against opposition he had obviously underestimated, showed the Frenchman to be either extremely naive, or arrogant in extremes... or possibly a combination of both.

Evidently, if truth be told, in spite of the performance against Chelsea in last season's final, Wenger knew that his side were merely picking up a consolation prize, which came nowhere near the real aspirations of one of the big guns. Personally I still love this competition and all that it embodies, right from the early qualifying stages onward, but I accept that I'm a nostalgic old fool, clinging on to the relics and memories of a bygone age, that isn't ever coming back.
Nottingham Forest deserved their win today and a place in the next round of the FA Cup and by the same token, Arsenal got exactly what their efforts warranted too, sweet FA!
Resting players today, for their forthcoming two-legged League Cup semi final v. Chelsea, was a massive mistake by Wenger. And besides, since when did the League Cup suddenly take precedence over the FA Cup? And why is it that highly paid, professional sportsmen need to take a whole week off before playing in a semi?

Perhaps I should try this caper too and phone my boss in the morning and tell him that I'm tired, so I've decided just come in for one day this week, so I can put in a maximum performance for a ninety minute day with a break half way through my shift. Then again, I've got bills to pay, so maybe I'll get up and scrape the ice off my car windows at 5.30AM with the rest of you wage slave suckers, while overpaid and under motivated superstars live a life of luxury, and idiots (like me today for example) shell out exorbitant sums of money to watch them merely going through the motions to pick up a hefty pay packet.
F-effing-FS! Modern day professional footballers are mollycoddled to f*ck!
And yet people still frequently ask me why I watch so much lower league and non league football instead of the fare that is on offer in the big time league.

While not wanting to take anything whatsoever from Nottingham Forest, who wholly merited their win, you would have to ask, that if the Gunners actually had almost 70% of possession, as they did according to the OPTA statistics people, why the majority of their movement went width ways across the pitch and back, in ineffective areas, paying scant regard to the fact that the goals are actually at either end of the pitch for a reason. And regardless of which personnel to (former) FA Cup holders selected, surely that should still adhere to the same set plays for free kick and corner routines.
Forest undid their visitors easily and often, attacked at will (and at pace) and to be quite frank, made Arsenal look second best all over the pitch, time and time again.
Truth be told, the Championship side wanted it more, much more and nobody could begrudge them this win on today's showing.

Ben Brereton laid down a marker for the home side, pressing Arsenal's central defenders and chasing down every ball right from the off.
When the opening goal did arrive in the twentieth minute, from Kieran Dowell's free kick just outside the visitors area on the right, Eric Lichaj had the Premier League side's pants down, when, having been played onside by an ineffective two man wall, he nipped in behind a static row of defenders, to get in between David Ospina and the near post, where he met the ball with a thumping header.
Just let this sink in for a moment... although Arsenal had fielded more or less a reserve side today, one of those defenders that didn't track Lichaj, or even spot his blind side run, owns a World Cup winners medal, and the keeper who was beaten to the ball next to his left hand upright by a player running across him from his right, is a Columbian international.

That very same World Champion equalised for the visitors within three minutes, when Theo Walcott appeared out of nowhere (I'd heard his name announced before kick off, but hadn't actually spotted him anywhere near the action as of yet), launched a free kick into the hosts area from out on the left which Rob Holding headed against the left hand post, before the ball ricocheted into the path of  Pal Mertesacker who buried the ball into the back of Jordan Smith's net from eight yards out.
Had Forest had their five minutes of fame and were now about to crumble under weight of  Arsenal's heavy artillery?
Where they hell as like!

In the final minute of the first half, while Wenger's side continued to live dangerously, playing an untimely game of head tennis in front of their own goal as they struggled to deal Matty Cash's right wing cross, Holding inadvertently provided a second goal assist, of sorts, when he nodded the ball away from inside his own six yard box to Lichaj, waiting for a loose ball inside the D, who took it down on his chest before dispatching a peach of a volley over the advancing Holding and into the top left hand corner the net, that left Ospina rooted to the spot.
HT: Forest 2 v Arsenal 1

Arsenal came out for the second half and unfathomably continued to persevere with their tippy tappy, going nowhere bleedin' fast passing rectangles, while Forest, spearheaded by the eighteen year old Brereton, who had already been denied three times by Ospina continued to shrug their shoulders dismissively at the reputation of their opposition and kept piling forward at each and every opportunity.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles, obviously one for the future among the North Londoners ranks, was made to look like a fish out of water at times, but in reality, he's a midfield player, being forced to perform in an unfamiliar position and Forest had obviously pinpointed the left back berth he was occupying as a potential route to get in amongst Arsenal back line, and in effect it worked really well.

Indeed Forest's next goal came after Cash had punctured the left hand side of Arsenal's defence and went to ground over Holding's outstretched leg, with Brereton making no mistake from the resulting penalty kick.

Wenger's side were thrown a potential lifeline when Smith fumbled Alex Iwobi's through ball at the feet of Danny Welbeck and the England striker rolled it into the unguarded net from an angle.
But Forest weren't finished yet, Welbeck was manhandled in the home side's area, but the referee Jonathan Moss allowed play to go on despite Arsenal's appeals and as the manager-less home side countered, Armand Traore made a lung busting run through the left channel of Ospina's area and was scythed down from behind by Mathieu Debuchy as the Gunners number two took out Traore at the same time as he reached the ball.
Controversy surrounded Dowell's eighty fifth minute spot kick, as he slipped on his run up and appeared to contact the ball twice as a consequence, but after a consultation between the referee and his assistant the goal stood, but the game was all but over as a competition by now anyway, so it was immaterial how the final goal had been scored.

Chuba Akpom entered the fray for the visitors with three minutes remaining and made a cameo appearance in the two final pieces of action, for it was he who Joe Worrall fouled to earn himself a second yellow card and dismissal and in stoppage time the Arsenal substitute lobbed Smith from the edge of the area and as his effort bounced inches wide of the right hand post Walcott was unable to reach it and steer the ball on target.
It would appear that the twenty quid Theo Walcott t-shirts that are on sale in Arsenal's online shop are now available for a fiver... hold that thought.
FT: Nottingham Forest 4 v Arsenal 2

Today's defeat marked the first time that Arsenal had been eliminated in the third round of the FA Cup during Arsene Wenger's twenty one year reign at Highbury and Ashburton Grove, but there could have no complaints from them as they failed to reorganise tactically at any point in an effort to impose themselves on the game, while Forest gave them no time or space whatsoever to utilise their tendency to pass the ball to death with no end result.
A fair result all told, well played Forest and kudos to their caretaker manager Gary Brazil for his level headed, calm and very shrewd handling of the game.