Positives & negatives from Arsenal's 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest

Arsenal's title challenge limply died on the vine after a 0-0 draw away to a Nottingham Forest team anything but scared by Mikel Arteta's grand design.

Arteta's "project" isn't just at a crossroads following a second-straight goalless outing during the business end of this Premier League campaign. The whole endeavour is beginning to look like one big promise, a sham of buzz words, soundbites and verbal gymnastics; all talk and no follow through.

Injuries have decimated the Arsenal forward line, but a manager often described as "generational" hasn't found solutions. Arteta's ideas to turn defenders into strikers in name barely unruffled Forest during a bore draw at the City Ground.

Not that some of Artetas's fishes out of tactical waters didn't try hard. Among them, left-back Riccardo Calafiori carried what little attacking initiative there was from the Gunners.

Unfortunately, the Italian's efforts weren't matched by established, actual forwards. Both Leandro Trossard and substitute Raheem Sterling barely made a dent, while the Mikel Merino up top experiment is already best left forgotten.

A full-back leading the line and a team playing for a plethora of corners. Who else longs for the days of Wengerball?

Positives & negatives from Arsenal's 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest

Positive #1: Buccaneering Calafiori

Let's end the debate once and for all. Arsenal's best raiding and inverted left full-back isn't academy darling Myles Lewis-Skelly. Nor is it Oleksandr Zinchenko, who wears the inverted moniker like a career disclaimer.

It isn't even forgotten man Kieran Tierney, despite a decent cameo against Forest. Instead, Arsenal's best left-back is Calafiori.

He was exceptional on the front foot against a home team well-drilled in deep defensive structures. Calafiori tried to break down the Forest wall by taking up some daring positions, highlighted by Sam Dean of The Daily Telegraph.

Yes, there's the obvious caveat here about how a full-back doing a passable impression of Thierry Henry sums up the decline in Arsenal's attacking talent under Arteta. A decline brought into sharper focus when the Gunners were devoid of threat after Calafiori was hooked at half-time to avoid the risk of getting a second yellow card.

All of that is true, but Calafiori's enterprise and technique are still valuable. If he can avoid injury, a big IF, Calafiori can encourage Arsenal to cash in on Zinchenko and shift Lewis-Skelly into midfield, where the 18-year-old surely ultimately belongs.

It's right to question the wisdom of Arteta dumping money on another left-back last summer, instead of bulk buying for a striker, but Calafiori has actually made a position of strength even better.

What he can't do is replace the fear factor that only comes from prolific strikers, artful creators and gifted wingers in the final third.

Continued on the next slide...