Arsene Makes an Arse of Arsenal Fans

Arsene Makes an Arse of Arsenal Fans

          On Sunday Nottingham Forest played the FA Cup Holders, Arsenal, in the competitions 3rd round stage. As a Forest fan I was expecting very little from the game but boy, was I surprised. Two of my friends were going to the game, both Arsenal fans, and invited me to join them. But, like a fool I turned it down.

           That afternoon I settled down to watch the game on my tablet, still expecting very little as a very inexperienced Forest side came up against an Arsenal side with over 600 Premier League appearances between them. Now let me make this clear Arsenal hardly fielded a weakened team. Lining us with David Ospina, an international goalkeeper with Mathieu Debuchy, a French international, Per Metersacker, a German International and Rob Holding, a future England international at the back. The midfield was on the young side with Reiss Nelson, Chris Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, all Academy graduates, playing alongside Egyptian international Mohammed Elneny. The front three of Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi is also far from lacking experience. With all being first team regulars of late so for Arsenal Supporters to call it a poor team is laughable.

          Forest Lined up with five of their own Academy Graduates in the eleven, with a further two players from other clubs under the age of 23. Only three of the players who started for Forest have made Premier League appearances as well. A vastly inexperienced side to say the least.

Arsenal's defence has come under scrutiny since the game, especially following the first goal.

          The opening goal fell to Forest. Kieran Dowell, The England under 19 international on loan from Everton whipped a freekick in towards the near post where Eric Lichaj was making a run meet the ball and headed home. The picture above shows just how poor Arsenal defended that goal and I'm not going to waste my time explaining the obvious.

          Arsenal quickly pulled one back through Per Mertesacker who scored his 10th goal for Arsenal in all competitions, this being the first one that hasn't been scored with his head. In my opinion Forest's second goal was brought about by poor defending. two poor clearance headers from a right wing cross resulted in the ball coming to Lichaj on the edge who vollied home brilliantly.

Forest Celebrate Eric Lichaj's second goal.

          In the second half Ben Brereton's running continued to be excellent, he drew fouls and held up play for the counter to take place. He was rewarded for his hard work by taking the penalty won by Matty Cash for a foul by Rob Holding. A Mistake by Jordan Smith in the Forest goal allowed Danny Welbeck to roll home into an unguarded net.

          Another defensive mistake allowed Forest to win their second penalty.  Mertesacker passed the ball directly to Armand Traore who darted past Debuchy and then the German himself before being brought down in the box for a penalty by Debuchy. Upon looking at the replays it appears that he may have won the ball, but in my opinion he had already tripped Traore before touching the ball. This time Kieran Dowell stepped up and scored the penalty, albeit amidst controversy as he appeared to kick the ball onto his standing foot (which for some reason is not allowed, it seems like a petty rule especially as he slipped). The referee spoke to his assistant in the aftermath but he gave the goal regardless. 

          Joe Worrall was sent off for Forest soon afterwards for two bookings in a matter of minutes, one for dissent when it looked like the second penalty would be ruled out. The second booking was for a challenge from behind.
          At fulltime, Eric Lichaj, the scorer of Forest's first two goals, said to BT Sport that his wife had promised him a dog if he scored a hattrick at any point this season. Having already scored twice he claims he 'politely asked Ben (Brereton) if I could take the penalty, I can't repeat what he said next and told me to go away.'
          His wife Katherine received a torrent of tweets, trying to get Eric the dog he deserved, but she remained adamant that he couldn't have one. That was until last night. Eric Lichaj posted a photo on Twitter of himself with his new puppy. Everyone's a winner in Nottingham, especially Eric Lichaj.

          At some point I'll get back to writing about Ollerton Town, but they've not played now since December 23rd due to postponements which is extremely disappointing. But that's all for now. Until next time...

Craig