{"id":806980,"date":"2026-10-18T22:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806980\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T22:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:40:11","slug":"madueke-breaks-nottingham-forests-resistance-as-dogged-arsenal-edge-to-victory-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806980\/","title":{"rendered":"Madueke breaks Nottingham Forest\u2019s resistance as dogged Arsenal edge to victory | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theme before kick-off was blanks. Or, more precisely, whether either team could stop firing them at the City Ground. It was a detail to make Oliver Glasner extremely uncomfortable that his Nottingham Forest team had still to score at their own stadium this season. Arsenal, meanwhile, had drawn 0-0<\/a> on their previous two visits to this part of the east Midlands. They had only one win in five here.<\/p>\n

Forest\u2019s frustrations under their new manager go on. It was another spirited performance from them, bits to like, especially a full-throttle performance from Liam Delap in the No 9 position. But, for the fifth time under Glasner, there was not a goal to celebrate in front of the home support.<\/p>\n

It was a game that came to feel increasingly set up for the famous terrace chant. One-nil to the Ars-en-nal. Or, as the travelling hordes would have it, one-nil to the champions. Arsenal<\/a> did not play well. They created little, finishing with just one shot on target. How Noni Madueke made it count.<\/p>\n

On as a half-time substitute, the winger took a pass from Declan Rice in the 80th minute and had only one thing on his mind. To cut inside from the left and unload. The connection was pure and that was when he caught a break, which he has worked to earn after a difficult start to the season. The ball deflected off Jair Cunha and flew past the Forest goalkeeper, Matz Sels.<\/p>\n

Liam Delap holds off Ezri Konsa at the City Ground. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Forest refused to accept the inevitable. Chris Wood, on as a substitute, delayed too long and saw Rice block. Murillo, of all players, danced inside from the left and curled off target. Delap was denied at the death by a thunderous Ezri Konsa block tackle. But it did feel inevitable. Forest, who missed the injured Morgan Gibbs-White, might have played all night and not scored. Arsenal had not forgotten their previous away fixture \u2013 the 3-0 defeat at Brighton<\/a>. It remains the only blot on their season.<\/p>\n

Arsenal had kicked off six points behind Manchester City, who have been perfect on the field in the league this season. Will it matter when the sanctions for their rule breaches are meted out? All Arsenal can do is play the situation as it stands and this was an occasion when the result was everything.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta\u2019s team dominated the ball. As they were always likely to do. They were determined to be patient. And yet they were flat and predictable until the closing stages. The lack of incisive movement was glaring. That said, Forest were compact out of possession in a 5-4-1 formation and hard to break down. They were resolved not to give up any easy yards.<\/p>\n

Arsenal played their patterns. They tried to suck the life out of the home crowd, working on the principle that it is difficult for fans to get animated if their team do not have the ball. The first half drifted by in a lazy Sunday afternoon haze, no shots on target for either side.<\/p>\n

Delap carried the physical fight; the Forest centre-forward was a willing and direct runner and he won a free-kick off Rice just outside the Arsenal box on 44 minutes. Neco Williams thumped it at Bruno Guimar\u00e3es, who went down and stayed down. The Forest support were unhappy at what they perceived as Arsenal\u2019s use of the dark arts. \u201cAre you City in disguise?\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n

Noni Madueke fires home \u2013 via a deflection \u2013 the only goal of the game. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Could a set piece provide the breakthrough? It felt the likeliest route. Murillo headed wide from a Forest corner in the 20th minute and was bloodied into the bargain; there was a whistle for a foul in the mass of bodies inside the six-yard box. At the other end, Kai Havertz headed over from a Rice free-kick on 37 minutes. He had a good look at the ball and was well-placed. It was a decent chance.<\/p>\n

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Arsenal have been a little barren in the first half this season. This was the seventh time in 10 matches since the Community Shield that they had failed to score in one. It has not been a problem. They needed to raise their levels for the second half.<\/p>\n

Arteta\u2019s first change was Madueke for Eberechi Eze on the left wing; an admission that the latter had failed to exert an influence. There was also a triple substitution on 66 minutes, the manager sending on Jurri\u00ebn Timber, Mikel Merino and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres for Ben White, Guimar\u00e3es and Havertz. He needed to shake things up because nothing was happening for his team. It was Forest who pushed after the restart, with Delap continuing to put himself about. He asked questions of Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es, albeit the Arsenal defender tended to have the answers.<\/p>\n

The minutes ticked down, the contest narrowing to a fine point and we waited to see whether there could be a moment, one big chance. Martin \u00d8degaard almost provided it in the 72nd minute when he released Timber with a lovely pass up the inside right. When he pulled back, Rice lifted wastefully high.<\/p>\n

Glasner\u2019s decision to introduce Ibrahim Sangar\u00e9 for Dan Ndoye shortly afterwards was telling. Sangar\u00e9\u2019s mission was to bolster the Forest midfield and yet he was slow to react to a half-cleared ball. When Rice played the pass, Madueke took over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed a champion spirit,\u201d Madueke said. \u201cMaybe last season, this game might not have gone for us. We have the extra belief and mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The theme before kick-off was blanks. Or, more precisely, whether either team could stop firing them at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-806980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}