3 positives & negatives from Arsenal’s defeat at the City Ground

Arsenal succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest, which confirmed Forest’s survival in the Premier League and ended the Gunners’ title hopes simultaneously. 

A loose Martin Odegaard pass gifted Morgan Gibbs-White the ball early in the first-half and his threaded pass found Taiwo Awoniyi, who slotted the ball past Aaron Ramsdale after a fortunate touch from Gabriel Magalhaes.

The result officially ends the Gunners’ title dream, but here are 3 positives and negatives from the match.

3 positives and negatives as Arsenal crash out of title race

Positive #1: Travelling fans

Despite the disappointing result against Brighton last weekend, our away support still travelled well for this game and supported the team throughout the game.

The last few weeks have been tough on both the players and the fanbase, but it was good to see that the connection between the two had not been lost. If we are to build upon our relative success this season, support from the fans is going to be critical.

Negative #1: Team selection

I think we were all confused when we realised that Mikel Arteta had chosen to start the game with Jakub Kiwior and Thomas Partey at left-back and right-back respectively. Granted, his vision was to maintain a three-man defence when in attack, allowing Partey to operate in an inverted role, but the plan simply didn’t work.

The team was imbalanced, with far too much reliance on our right-hand side which made us predictable and easy to defend against. The fact that Kieran Tierney was on the bench only made the decision all the more confusing.

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