Arsenal suffer successive scoreless league draws, but Mikel Arteta sees another small step towards the title

Trent troubles again for Arsenal: Picture by @capitalfootball

Nottingham Forest 0 v Arsenal 0

By Kaz Mochlinski at the City Ground

Premier League

Matchweek 22

Arsenal were held to a second successive scoreless draw in the Premier League but the point gained at Nottingham Forest was still seen by Mikel Arteta as another small step towards taking the title for the first time in 22 years.

Matz Sels made a series of superb saves in the second half to stop Arsenal from scoring a winning goal, with the visitors being left frustrated by Forest and their own failure to finish off opportunities more clinically.

It was nevertheless enough to keep Arsenal comfortably clear at the top of the table ahead of Manchester City and Aston Villa, while Forest were grateful for a gap of five points above West Ham United and the relegation zone at the end of the evening.

In many ways this Saturday night was a case of history repeating itself. Last year Forest and Arsenal also played out a goalless game, when the Gunners did not convert their chances, but at that time the two teams were third and second in the league.

Back then, 11 months ago, the stalemate at the City Ground seemed to shatter Arsenal’s faint and fading hopes of overtaking Liverpool in the race to win the Premier League. Exactly the same score in 2026 feels far more positive.

“Without conceding a single shot on target again, the fact that we haven’t won the game is disappointing” Arteta acknowledged. “But we made a step, a smaller one than the one we wanted, but it’s a step.”

Prior to Forest, only Liverpool had stopped Arsenal from scoring this season, in a 1-0 victory at Anfield and then in the 0-0 draw in North London last time out. Matching the defending champions’ achievement was especially encouraging for Sean Dyche’s side.

The home team were helped by the return from Afcon of Ibrahim Sangaré, providing a stabilising shield protecting their defenders. And they had the benefit too of an additional five days rest and preparation time compared to Arsenal.

Dyche praised his players for their determined defence, and he was unapologetic over their limited attacking ambitions, explaining: “Sometimes you have to play at home as if you’re away, on the counter, I think, against these top sides.”

The Forest manager’s assessment of Arsenal was insightful: “The change that they’ve done really is three or four years ago everyone was saying that they have to score beautiful goals. As we know they’ll now score hard goals, ugly goals, set-piece goals.

“You know, I think that makes them more of a threat, personally. So I think I’m pleased with that, you know - to come out of that with a clean sheet is pleasing for the defensive side of our performance.”

Beside the banks of the River Trent, Arsenal could not conjure a set-piece score or prompt an own-goal from the opposition, as they had done repeatedly in a series of successes towards the end of last year.

The Gunners had also needed a penalty for a one-goal win at Everton in their final away outing of 2025. But they had begun the current calendar year much more brightly on their travels, with three victories in three different competitions, scoring 10 goals.

However, after triumphing 3-2 at Bournemouth in the Premier League, 4-1 at Portsmouth in the FA Cup, and 3-2 at Chelsea in the League Cup, they were unable to sustain that sequence on their trip to Nottingham.

Arteta’s approach was a very attacking one, sending out a strong starting line-up in a forward-focused formation of 4-1-4-1, with just three changes from the previous game, and likewise only three differences in the XI compared to the last league match.

After an opening 45 minutes without any attempts on target, the Arsenal manager made his first player switch at half-time, and added a triple substitution shortly into the second period, eventually altering all of his front five.

The adjustments had an immediate impact, as one of those introduced, Bukayo Saka, got away down the right wing for a right-footed cross from which Declan Rice’s shot brought the first save of the game by Sels in the 59th minute.

Having thrown himself to his left to tip away that initial effort, six minutes later Sels replicated it diving to his right, as the same two Arsenal players combined, this time Rice from the left wing crossing left-footed for Saka to head goalwards.

With 20 minutes remaining, Sels produced probably his best stop, after another superb Saka right-footed right wing cross was met by Mikel Merino with a header that the Forest keeper scrambled round his left-hand post as Gabriel Jesus closed in.

Less than a couple more minutes had elapsed when Merino got a further headed chance, from a Rice right-footed inside-left free-kick to the far post, but the Spaniard misdirected it narrowly wide.

Four Arsenal openings, two each made by Saka and Rice, three of the four being headers, and three of the four saved by Sels - who showed why last season he was David Raya’s main rival for the Golden Glove for the most Premier League clean sheets.

Both teams had penalty appeals turned down by the referee, Michael Oliver, whose decisions were in each case reviewed and quickly confirmed by VAR. Nothing could prevent the inexorable outcome on this occasion of the evening ending with no goals.

The point apiece might very well prove precious for Forest and Arsenal by May. The Gunners will hope that they do not regret their first consecutive goalless draws in the Premier League since the opening two games of the 2012-13 season.

It happened now against two former European Cup / Champions League winners, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. 14 years ago the 0-0 matches were a little less understandably shared with Sunderland and Stoke City.

Nottingham Forest: (4-2-3-1) Sels - Aina, Milenković, Murillo, Williams - Sangaré, Anderson - Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White, Domínguez (Hutchinson 89) - Igor Jesus (Ndoye 76)

Arsenal: (4-1-4-1) Raya - White, Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Timber - Zubimendi (Eze 79) - Madueke (Saka 57), Ødegaard (Merino 57), Rice, Martinelli (Trossard 46) - Gyökeres (Gabriel Jesus 57)

Attendance: 30,729