Madueke's last-moment goal gives Arsenal a hard-fought win, United's winless drought continues
At Nottingham's City Ground, hosts Forest held Arsenal off until the 80th minute. No goal was in sight against the compact defence. Finally substitute Noni Madueke broke the deadlock — on a measured pass from Declan Rice, he drove the ball into the net with a splendid right-footed shot from the left side of the D-box. With that only goal, the Gunners, without Bukayo Saka, left the field with a hard-earned 1-0 victory.
The goal was Arsenal's first shot on target in the match. Despite having the ball for 74 percent of the match, the visitors could take only 9 shots. On the other hand, Forest at their home ground did not give up easily — alongside taking 13 shots, they earned 7 corners. In the later part of the match, Nottingham even outdid Arsenal in possession in the attacking third, but as they could not capitalise on the chances, they had to leave the field empty-handed.
The first half was lifeless. From Saka's cross, Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels had to keep the ball out from under the crossbar. Dan Ndoye cut in at the far post and tested goalkeeper David Raya. Kai Havertz, getting a chance from a Martin Odegaard pass, sent the ball into the side netting from an acute angle. Coach Mikel Arteta was looking increasingly frustrated on the touchline.
At the break, Arteta took off Eze and brought on Madueke. That too brought no immediate improvement; a shot from a surging attack by Liam Delap went just past the post. Then Arteta tried to revive the attack by bringing on Mikel Merino, Viktor Gyokeres and Jurrien Timber, and in the end the winning goal came from Madueke's feet.
With this win, reigning champions Arsenal have 18 points from 7 matches. They are in second place in the table, 3 points behind Manchester City, who have won all seven of their seven matches. After the unexpected 3-0 defeat against Brighton on 19 September, the Gunners have now won three matches in a row — after wins against Leeds in the league and Lille in the Champions League came this victory at Forest's ground. All in all, this is their sixth win in seven league matches.
A busy schedule lies ahead for Arsenal. On Wednesday they travel to play at Bayern Munich's ground in the Champions League, and then next weekend their opponents in the league at home are Everton. To keep the gap with City down, Arteta's team has little room to drop points in these matches.
On the other hand, the plight of Forest, third from the bottom of the table, is not easing. They have won only two of their last 17 home league matches. Coach Oliver Glasner, who took charge before the start of the season, has won only one of seven matches in the top league.
On the same night, victory became an even more distant golden deer for Manchester United. They drew 1-1 the Premier League match against Leeds United at the opponents' ground. The visitors had first gone ahead through a Bryan Mbeumo goal; in the second half Leeds returned to parity through a Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal.
With this draw, United's winless drought lengthened further. Across all competitions, England's record 20-time league champions are winless in six consecutive matches. In the Premier League they have no win in four consecutive matches; of these, the result of the last three matches is the same — 1-1 draws. The old story of failing to preserve a lead after going ahead was repeated once more.
United coach Michael Carrick is in any case facing criticism for one disappointing performance after another. It goes without saying that after dropping points once again at Leeds' ground, the arrows of that criticism will become sharper still.
United's recent record against Leeds is not reassuring either. Last season, in their two league meetings they could not win even once — after the first match ended in a 1-1 draw, Leeds won the return match 2-1 at their own ground. This time too Carrick's team could not emerge from that circle of failure.
This season, Manchester United have got only one win in 7 Premier League matches; with 7 points they are 13th in the table. On the other hand, Leeds are in seventh place with 10 points. Ending the winless drought and climbing up the table is now the biggest challenge for Carrick's team.
