Eighteen points from seven games. Six wins, one loss, second in the Premier League. On paper, Arsenal are doing exactly what champions are supposed to do in the early weeks of a season. But paper doesn't capture the full picture of what happened at the City Ground on Sunday, and if you watched this match rather than just glanced at the table, you came away with a slightly queasy feeling. A single deflected shot on target. One. That was all Arsenal could manage against a Nottingham Forest side that has conceded in a relegation zone and hasn't scored at home in five matches across all competitions. Winning is good. Winning like this, though, demands some honesty.
The Goal That Settled It Tells The Whole Story
Noni Madueke came off the bench at half-time, and eighty minutes in he cut inside from the left and fired a shot that deflected off Jair Cunha and crept into the far corner. Declan Rice worked the ball out to him, the effort took a kind nick, and that was that. Three points secured. It was the kind of goal that you file under "we'll take it" rather than "did you see that", and the deflection felt almost fitting given how little Arsenal had threatened all afternoon. Their best chance before the goal was Rice himself slamming over from twelve yards after a slick move saw Jurriën Timber get to the byline and pull back. A midfielder, clean through on the edge of the box, and he blazes it over the bar. That is the attacking quality Arsenal were producing.
What makes that single shot on target even more damning is the context. This was the City Ground against a Forest side in the relegation zone. A team that, until this match, hadn't scored at home in their previous four home games. The table says Arsenal are in second place. The performance said something considerably more complicated.
Madueke Answers His Critics The Only Way That Matters
Madueke came into this match carrying a specific kind of weight. He had been dropped from the recent England squad, a public signal that his club form hadn't been convincing enough for the national setup. [The debate around England squad selections has been fierce all autumn](/uprise/football/all-aboard-the-tuchel-train-england-camp-has-clear-winners), and Madueke finding himself on the outside looking in was one of the sharper decisions. Being axed from a squad and then being left on the bench at the start of the following league match compounds the message considerably.
His response, though, was exactly what you want to see from a player with a point to prove. He didn't sulk. He came on, got involved, and produced the moment the game needed even if it took a generous deflection to find the net. You cannot pick holes in that. Arteta threw him on specifically to inject energy into a half-time performance that had been flat, and while it took a while for the second half to turn Arsenal's way, Madueke was at the centre of the decisive moment. The England selectors will have noted it. Whether it changes anything is another question.
Arteta's Patience Wore Thin Early
Mikel Arteta replacing Eberechi Eze with Madueke at the break was a pointed substitution. Eze had half a match to make something happen in the final third and had not managed it, and Arteta's decision to pull him before a single second of the second half was played was a clear message. This manager does not wait around when he thinks a change is needed. He then sent for Viktor Gyökeres and Mikel Merino midway through the second half as Arsenal hunted a goal that their play had not yet earned. Arteta calling it heavy artillery is the right framing. He was throwing resources at a problem of Arsenal's own making.
[Arteta's position at the club is one of genuine authority now](/uprise/football/mikel-artetas-new-contract-reflects-where-the-power-now-lies), and that extends to his willingness to make uncomfortable calls in real time. Pulling Eze at half-time in a nil-nil against a struggling side is not the move of a manager managing reputations. It is the move of a manager who decided his team needed shaking up and acted without sentimentality. Whether the players respond to that long-term is worth watching.
Forest's Crisis Is Deepening Fast
This result left Nottingham Forest in the relegation zone after seven games, with three successive league defeats and three home losses by a 1-0 scoreline this season alone. Oliver Glasner's side cannot score at home. Five matches across all competitions without a goal on their own ground is a stat that points to something structural rather than simply bad luck. And the frustrating thing for Forest supporters watching on Sunday was that their side actually had moments. Liam Delap began finding space after the break and drilled a shot that went narrowly wide. Dan Ndoye gave Gabriel the slip and burst into the box. Chris Wood broke clear in the 89th minute and took too long to pull the trigger. Murillo danced into the area deep in stoppage time and fired over.
These are not chances carved out by a team with nothing going for them. These are chances missed by a team that is struggling to translate pressure into actual goals, and that distinction matters enormously when your league position is what Forest's currently is. Ezri Konsa's last-gasp tackle to deny Delap in the dying seconds saved Arsenal from what would have been a genuinely deserved equaliser.
The Title Race And The Noise Around City
The win moved Arsenal back up to second, three points behind Manchester City who sit top with a perfect seven wins from seven. But the table comes with an enormous asterisk right now. [City's guilty verdict over breaches of Premier League financial rules](/uprise/football/manchester-city-v-psg-is-a-reminder-of-the-path) casts a shadow over every league position that uses them as a reference point. Arsenal are three points behind City. What does that mean? At this moment, genuinely nobody is certain, and that uncertainty is not going anywhere quickly.
For Arsenal, the practical answer is simple enough: keep winning and let the situation around City resolve itself. A team sitting on eighteen points from seven matches has done its job at this stage. But the manner of this win, grinding out a result through a deflected goal that was their only shot on target, is not the performance of a side ready to dominate the rest of the division.
A Champions' Win, But Not A Champions' Performance
Arsenal are defending champions and they ground out three points at a struggling side's ground. There is a version of football analysis where that is simply good enough, where results are results and you move on. We are not entirely dismissing that argument. But there is a clear difference between grinding out a win because you had to and grinding out a win because you never got going in the first place. Sunday felt like the latter.
[The Premier League's running theme this season has been teams converting far fewer chances than expected](/uprise/football/the-premier-league-so-far-draws-underperforming-xg-and-other), and Arsenal fit that pattern uncomfortably well today. Second in the table. Only shot on target in the match. A deflected effort off the bench. Title challengers? Probably. Title convincing? Not today. Fix the attack, or eventually the grind stops working.