David Hytner was at the City Ground. Here’s his report. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nuno Espirito Santo speaks to TNT. “We were organised … committed to the tasks … in the first half we were very organised … the part that was missing was having a little bit more of the ball … we were better in the second half in that aspect … disappointed with the way we conceded … we should have done more … we should have defended [the first goal] better … [Awoniyi] scored, which was a positive … we have more options for the future … we cannot thank our fans enough … we should have given more so they were more reactive … it comes from us.” Mikel Arteta talks to TNT. “We were really good against Palace … we wanted to generate momentum and I think we did it … we suffered much more than we deserved but this is the Premier League … we need different tools and to find the right moments … we generated a lot today … we created a lot of chances but didn’t convert them … we really need Jesus at his best … he has some fluid on the knee but he was kicking the physio saying he wanted to be on the pitch … when someone has that attitude something good will happen … he was magnificent today … we have some momentum now … we have a massive game [against Liverpool] and we will have to be even better than today for sure.” He’s also asked about Zinchenko and White having a short conversation after the final whistle. “That’s pushing each other and being not happy at conceding … I have to encourage that and promote it in the right and respectful way … maybe after the game it is too emotional and too heated … but I love the players are pushing each other.” Gabriel Jesus, named player of the match by Lucy Ward on TNT, speaks. “First half we did so good … unfortunately we didn’t score but we controlled the game … we kept doing the same in the second half and then we scored … I think I’m doing good … unfortunately I’ve sometimes been injured … my knee … so I’m working hard … doing everything to be on the pitch … the support of my team-mates is good … they keep supporting me.” Arsenal are now two points behind the leaders Liverpool, having played one game more. This is what the top of the league looks like right now, with Aston Villa currently two goals down at home against Newcastle. FULL TIME: Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal A deserved victory for title-chasing Arsenal … though they didn’t half make unnecessarily hard work of it at the end! 90 min +7: Toffolo flings in long from the left. Elanga can’t get on the end of the cross at the far stick. Trossard counters with another time-management dribble, and that should be that. 90 min +5: Murillo whacks clear from the edge of the Forest box, but bangs into Nketiah in doing so. He’s punished with a free kick, just outside the area. He’s fuming, as are the crowd, but that’s how the referee sees it. To be fair, it was a rare old clatter. 90 min +4: Trossard calms things down a bit with a baroque dribble in Forest territory. He goes nowhere, but that’s not really the point. 90 min +3: A huge chance for Forest! The corner’s only half cleared. Gibbs-White shoots through a crowded box. The ball sits up for Awoniyi, who can only weakly hook towards the bottom left. Raya saves! There’s a quick check by VAR for a potential handball amid the melee, but there’s nothing going on there. 90 min +2: Odegaard and Zinchenko make way for Jorginho and Kiwior. 90 min +1: Gibbs-White burns down the right wing and wins a corner. Before it can be taken, there’ll be some more changes. 90 min: There’s a check for offside, but VAR whacks up the old lines and the goal stands. Here follows five additional grandstand-finish minutes! GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal (Awoniyi 89) Forest have done nothing all evening. Then suddenly, out of nothing, this! A long ball down the right. Toffolo heads across. Awoniyi, his back to goal on the penalty spot, takes a poor touch, but the ball sits up nonetheless, so he spins and slots into the bottom right! 87 min: Arsenal pass it around, and their fans entertain themselves with a few olés. “More than most Arsenal have benefited from the winter minibreak,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Compared to the festive period, the Gunners have played with a lot more zip and verve, passing the ball around faster and pressing more intently. The wan displays against West Ham and Fulham feel like they were an age ago.” 85 min: Saka sends a wild shot high over the crossbar from the right-hand edge of the D. He’s not been at his best tonight, despite the goal, but he’s got plenty enough credit in the bank. 84 min: Another Saka corner, another Turner catch. This is getting old. 83 min: Nketiah shoots low and hard from a tight angle on the right. Omobamidele telescopes a leg to deflect out for a corner. Saka takes. Turner plucks. Arsenal caused all sorts of bother at set pieces against Crystal Palace; they’ve been uncharacteristically blunt with them tonight. 81 min: Trossard weaves his way in from the left, evades a half-hearted Montiel challenge, and pearls a rising shot inches wide of the top-right corner. Arsenal looking to wrap up these three points with pretty bows. 80 min: Arsenal ping it around. No anxiety now. 78 min: … and then Arsenal respond immediately as Jesus and Martinelli make way for Nketiah and Trossard. 78 min: Can Elanga put that right? He replaces Williams. 76 min: The Arsenal fans are giving it plenty now. The home support understandably subdued. A general sense that this game is over, not least because Raya hasn’t been forced into serious action once this evening. 74 min: On the touchline, Nuno Espirito Santo has a face on. And no wonder. His team had battled hard to contain their dominant opponents, only for mistakes from Turner and Montiel to undo all of their staunch efforts. Credit to Arsenal, though, for stress-testing the hosts from the get-go and reaping the rewards from the inevitable buckle. Title race on! GOAL! Nottingham Forest 0-2 Arsenal (Saka 72) White clears the corner without fuss. Arsenal attempt to counter. Montiel slaps a clearance straight to Odegaard, who releases Jesus down the left. The ball’s rolled to Saka on the right-hand edge of the D. One touch, then bang, a forensic drive across Turner and into the bottom left! 71 min: Mangala sprays a pass wide right for Montiel, who shuttles the ball forward to Williams. A corner is won. Before it can be taken, Arsenal switch out Smith Rowe for Havertz, while Forest send on Yates in place of Mangala. 69 min: Odegaard feeds Saka down the right. Saka drops a shoulder and shoots, hoping to find the far corner. Murillo gets in the way to block. Corner. Saka to take from the right. 67 min: That was such a simple goal in one respect. A throw in. Jesus spins. Jesus shoots. But he fairly whistled that home from an unpromising position. Lovely. But having said all that, Turner may not be happy with his part in the goal. A keeper beaten through his legs at the near post. Oh dear. GOAL! Nottingham Forest 0-1 Arsenal (Jesus 65) What a finish this is! Arsenal take a quick throw down the left. Jesus strides at full pelt into the box. It looks as though he’s over-run the ball, but from the tightest of angles, fires a low shot through Turner’s legs and into the net. Arsenal finally make their breakthrough! 64 min: Hudson-Odoi replaces Dominguez, who has been quiet since the restart. 62 min: Martinelli strides into the Forest box from the left. He’s about to shoot when Murillo arrives from nowhere. A perfectly timed block and clearance. Murillo has been immense at the back for Forest so far tonight. 60 min: Saka goes down on the halfway line and stays down. No foul. Murillo plays on. The referee then stops play, much to Forest’s chagrin. Some understandable pique, given Simon Hooper didn’t halt the game when Montiel was down inside his own box during the first half. But there’s no point second-guessing referees these days. 58 min: Jesus, his back to goal to the right of the Forest D, flicks the ball over his head, spins, and whistles a shot high and wide of the top-right corner. That would have been an absolute peach. 57 min: White, Odegaard and Saka combine deliciously down the right – fast, one-touch stuff - and suddenly the ball’s pinged down the channel to release Jesus into the box. Jesus only has Turner to beat. He does so, but his lash towards the top right caroms off the inside of the post and away. So close to the opener! 56 min: The hosts counter through Toffolo down the left. Awoniyi can’t control on the edge of the box. Had he managed to do so, it would have been a great chance. Instead, Arsenal counter, Martinelli winning a corner on the left. Montiel clears this one. A proper game, this, now. 54 min: Saka comes at Toffolo again, and wins Arsenal’s seventh corner of the evening. Turner plucks Saka’s delivery out of the sky. 53 min: Saka sashays in from the right and hits a fierce rising shot goalwards. The ball takes a big deflection off Toffolo, wrong-footing Turner, who nevertheless changes direction to stick out a strong arm. What a save that was! 52 min: Awoniyi is already giving Arsenal something new to think about. His sheer presence forces Saliba into the concession of a foul. The free kick is sent into the box, and Williams plants a header goalwards. Easy enough for Raya, but this is so much better from Forest. 51 min: Forest launch one of their trademark fast-paced counters for the first time this evening, but with Arsenal light at the back, Gibbs White is unable to release either Awoniyi or Dominguez, clattering his pass into Saliba. Big chance goes by. 50 min: Martinelli twists and turns down the left but his low cross is hooked clear by Murillo. 49 min: Gibbs White sashays his way past Rice, who briefly thought about dragging his man down and taking one for the team. But he lets him go. Gibbs White finds Awoniyi in a bit of space near the centre circle, but with Dominguez out right and in space, the sub takes a heavy touch and the chance to launch a dangerous counter is gone. 47 min: We continue where we left off, with Arsenal making all the passes and Forest closing all of the doors. Forest get the second half underway. They’ve made a change up front, with Wood making way for Awoniyi. Arsenal Concerns dept. “Arsenal currently lack the ruthless killer instinct of their two main rivals for the title. Their attackers seem to need two or three touches in the box before pulling the trigger” – Eleazar Ogbemudia “Target man, false nine, rotating system. None of that matters. This team hinges on Partey. When he isn’t starting, this is a marginal top-four team” – Sean Orlowicz “Looking at tonight’s bench, I’m puzzled as to how Arteta has constructed a squad that offers so few scoring options beyond the first XI. Seems like he’s got a blindspot there of galactic proportions” – Martin McCarthy Half-time entertainment. Bob’s got your back! HALF TIME: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal It’s been all Arsenal … up until the final ball. Turner hasn’t had a serious save to make. Arteta runs off down the tunnel in determined fashion. You’d pay cash money to hear him giving his players beneficial advice during the break. Nuno by contrast will be happy enough. 45 min +2: Saka and Odegaard take turns to consider shooting from the edge of the Forest D. Neither goes for it. White dinks from the right. Murillo heads clear. Arsenal, not for the first time in their long, illustrious history, appear to be trying to walk the ball into the net. 45 min +1: Zinchenko crosses fiercely from the left. Jesus, falling backwards, attempts to steer a header on target. Over the bar it goes. 45 min: There will be three additional first-half minutes. 44 min: There’s some pinball in the Forest box, set off by a speculative Zinchenko drive. Saka, who has been quiet this evening, attempts to curl towards the bottom right. The ball pings off Murillo and dribbles millimetres wide of the left-hand post. Turner was wrong-footed and beaten. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. As close as Arsenal have come. 42 min: Forest nearly hit dominant Arsenal with a sucker punch, striding purposefully down the middle of the park and larruping a rising shot over the bar from the best part of 30 yards. Not too far off target, but Raya had it covered. 40 min: Some cute play down the left between Zinchenko, Jesus and Smith Rowe. The ball’s cut back to Odegaard, who can’t get a shot away. Arsenal try again, White making good down the right but cutting back to nobody in particular. Eventually Odegaard has a shot that’s blocked and cleared. Arsenal are getting a little frustrated, and Jesus goes into the book for saying something saucy to the referee. 38 min: Play restarts. A little bit of first-half stoppage time guaranteed. 37 min: Montiel requires a bit of treatment, so play stops for a little bit. 35 min: In the middle of a scrum in the Forest box, Omobamidele accidentally high-kicks his own man, Montiel, in the chest. Montiel goes down. Arsenal play on. Jesus has a dig. Blocked. Zinchenko eventually slices out for a goal kick, and the home fans make their displeasure known. They wanted play stopped, but Arsenal had no obligation. 34 min: Arsenal pass it around a lot but go absolutely nowhere. Forest holding their shape. Just as it’s been from the first whistle. 32 min: Zinchenko takes an aeon over a throw. Forest will be happy for the breather. They’re having to do all the chasing. 30 min: In lieu of that killer final pass, Smith Rowe takes matters into his own hands and has a shy from 25 yards. Always wide and high of the top-right corner, but not by too much. A decent effort by Arsenal’s young returning hero. 29 min: Jesus dribbles infield from the right. He enters the box but a heavy touch allows Williams to belt clear with feeling. Arsenal asking so many questions, but they don’t have any answers in the final third. The last pass lacking. A familiar old story unfolding? 28 min: Nothing comes of this corner either. 27 min: From the throw, Gibbs-White attempts to flick the ball past Rice. It skims the top of Rice’s arm. Forest claim a penalty, but come off it. Arsenal counter – this is enjoyable end-to-end stuff – and Martinelli wins a corner down the left. 26 min: Odegaard loops the free kick into a crowded mixer. Turner comes through the pack to claim with confidence. Forest go up the other end through Wood again, whose sheer presence in chasing a loose ball down the right forces Raya to storm out of his box and slice into the crowd. 25 min: … but Arsenal come straight back at Forest, and Williams handles Rice’s pass down the inside left. A free kick in a very dangerous area. Everyone lines up, just inside the Forest box. 24 min: … nothing. 23 min: Wood embarks on a power dribble down the inside-right channel. He shoots. Zinchenko blocks. Arsenal counter through Martinelli down the left. Williams sticks out a leg to divert a shot-cum-cross out for a corner. From which … 22 min: Martinelli probes down the left and eventually gets a cross away. Dominguez heads half-clear then Montiel finishes the job with a good old blooter. For all their possession and threat, Arsenal haven’t warmed Turner’s hands yet. 21 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 71 percent of possession so far. 19 min: Dominguez finds Wood on the edge of the Arsenal box. The big man very nearly gets the better of Saliba in a 1970s-infused tussle, but the Gunners swarm the striker and the danger is over. Speaking of Seventies-style carry-ons, here’s Justin Kavanagh: “Thanks for the link, Scott, but I have to disagree with you on Forest having the greatest-ever club crest. Surely it was Leeds’ smiley badge, if for no other reason that it was sported by a team that usually played with a snarl on their faces? A team whose centre-half admitted to the Queen herself (when she commented on their ‘whiter than white’ strip at Wembley) that ‘I’m no angel, ma’am’.” 17 min: The Forest keeper is good to continue. 16 min: A pause as Turner drops to his knees. On comes the physio. 15 min: A bit of space for White, near the byline to the right of the Forest goal. He wedges into the centre, then the flag goes up for offside. Arsenal are beginning to make inroads now. After an early period of sterile domination, they’re converting that possession into genuine threat. 14 min: Zinchenko slips a pass down the left channel to release Smith Rowe into the box. Smith Rowe crosses low. Jesus can’t get to the ball ahead of Murillo, who clips the ball over, and perhaps off the top of, his own crossbar. Nothing comes of the resulting corner. 13 min: Jesus and Saka combine down the inside-right channel. Nearly. But the ball breaks to Odegaard, who takes a snapshot from 12 yards. Blocked and cleared. 11 min: Saka nearly nips past Toffolo down the right. The Forest left back does just enough to stop him, but only at the expense of the first corner of the evening. Arsenal have already scored 13 goals this season from set pieces. Number 14 coming up? Nope. Turner punches Saka’s delivery clear, then Danilo completes the job. 9 min: Arsenal get passing again, and yes the City Ground faithful are a little subdued now. Arsenal Task #1 completed. 7 min: Saka ships possession carelessly to allow Gibbs-White to steam upfield. For a second, it looks as though Arsenal will be light at the back, but they snap back into their defensive shape quickly and another Forest move peters out. 5 min: Better from Forest, as Dominguez wriggles his way out of a tight spot in the centre circle and launches the home side’s first attack of the evening. He tries to find Wood down the inside-left channel but gets the pass all wrong and Saliba is able to put a stop to the move. 4 min: Still all Arsenal. Rice nearly releases Smith Rowe into the Forest box from the right. Too much on the pass, and it’s a goal kick. Still a raucous atmosphere. But for how long? Much more of this territorial dominance from the away team, and the patience of the home crowd will be tested for sure. Early days of course. 2 min: Arsenal impose themselves on the match from the get-go. All the possession. They pass, pass, pass. Jesus tries to exchange passes with Martinelli on the edge of the Forest box but Mangala intervenes to block. Arsenal get the ball rolling. A reminder that there are four other Premier League matches being played this evening … Luton v Brighton (7.45pm) Fulham v Everton (7.45pm) Crystal Palace v Sheff Utd (8pm) Aston Villa v Newcastle (8.15pm) … so spoil yourself, open another tab, and enjoy some Clockwatch action with Rob Smyth. It really is on this evening. The teams are out! Nottingham Forest wear their famous red shirts – adorned with the world’s greatest crest – while Arsenal have come as a Stabilo Boss gift set. A raucous atmosphere at the City Ground, what with all that mist rolling in from the Trent. Their desire is always to be here. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes; in the meantime, here’s some pre-match optimism from Gunners fan Charles Antaki. “Only Rice as midfield policeman - hmm - but Smith Rowe starts! So, initial reaction is what might be best described as ‘mixed’. Also ‘apprehensive’. But since the latter is standard fare, it can be ignored in anticipation of the former doing the job of two or three men and the latter sparkling himself away from transfer rumours.” That does count as optimism, right? Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo speaks to TNT Sport. “It has been hard … a lot of players out, injuries … but it is an honour to be here … we decided to bring [Taiwo Awoniyi, Anthony Elanga and Felipe], they are not totally ready, they have only had a couple of sessions … but it is better to have them around … let’s see how we manage them … we are aware of the [potential points deduction] situation … to be honest it is not part of our day … we don’t speak about it … we have decided to try and ignore it and focus on what we have to do, knowing that when the moment comes we have to face it … we cannot get distracted … there are people at the club taking care of that, it is our job to play … the supporters at the City Ground are amazing, we rely on them.” Nottingham Forest make three changes to their starting XI after the goalless draw at Bristol City in the FA Cup. Harry Toffolo, Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White replace Ryan Yates and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who drop to the bench, and the on-loan Nuno Tavares, who is ineligible against his parent club. Arsenal make three changes after the five-goal Premier League thumping of Crystal Palace. Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe replace Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz, who have to make do with a place on the bench. The teams Nottingham Forest: Turner, Montiel, Omobamidele, Murillo, Toffolo, Mangala, Danilo, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Williams, Wood. Subs: Worrall, Awoniyi, Hennessey, Hudson-Odoi, Felipe, Elanga, Yates, Vlachodimos, Aguilera. Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Rice, Smith Rowe, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli. Subs: Ramsdale, Nketiah, Kiwior, Cedric, Trossard, Jorginho, Nelson, Havertz, Walters. Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire). Preamble Nottingham Forest are all the way down here … … while Arsenal are all the way up here … … so at first glance you’d expect Arsenal to win this one easily enough tonight. Not least because they’ve beaten Forest in five of their last six meetings in the top flight. HOWEVER. Forest won this fixture last season, hammering the final nail in Arsenal’s title coffin; indeed they’re on a three-game winning run against the Gunners at the City Ground in all competitions. So both sides have good reason to go into this match with confidence, knowing the weight of at least some recent history is on their side. Perhaps it’s the super-recent that will tip it: Forest’s last Premier League match was a topsy-turvy 3-2 defeat at Brentford, while Arsenal’s previous league game was that 5-0 rout of Crystal Palace. These two teams usually serve up goals, one way or another, so this should be fun. Kick off is at 7.30pm GMT. It’s on!