Nottingham Forest - Arsenal

[The reds]

I actually feel more confident about the rest of the season after today's game. We knew we couldn't outplay Arsenal but we were tactically superb except from a Deflected shot.

[ozzyten10]

Thai k Glasner sore game set up was brilliant today - it’s his in game changes that are having me questioning him - CHO for Dominguez was the only change needed - moving Mcatee and Sangare on completely lost us a foothold and they scored.

[ozzyten10]

And only because domi had run himself into the ground

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Don’t know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic after that.

Excellent team performance, looked organised throughout and getting to grips with the system. Yet we still can’t score and let one in. Could Sels have done better? Sangare switched off? Wood could definitely have done better, that was poor.

Speaking of poor add Michael Oliver to the hate list, they were allowed to pull us about all game and he summed up a wonderfully biased performance by blowing for the softest of shoves for the last play of the game.

Need a stroke of luck or just something to go our way really soon before heads drop.

[Plymouth red]

I think the start looks very similar to his start on his first full season at palace. I remember we played palace and beat them 1-0 but it was a lucky win and due to a howler by Henderson. They were near the bottom of the league then and couldn't buy a win.

We seem to be playing reasonably well for long periods but cannot kill games off. Against palace we should have been out of sight before they got a goal back. Against cov we had enough chances to get a draw and probably a win. Leeds was a sucker punch against a well organised team and spurs we should have probably won. Reality is that our own poor finishing coupled with every mistake being punished and some iffy decisions mean that rather than sitting on 10-12 points we are scraping the barrel with 5.

I still believe glasner will do well and I think we will stick with him. All managers deserve time to get things right and glasner is proven at doing so.

[Paplane]

Don’t know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic after that.

Excellent team performance, looked organised throughout and getting to grips with the system. Yet we still can’t score and let one in. Could Sels have done better? Sangare switched off? Wood could definitely have done better, that was poor.

Speaking of poor add Michael Oliver to the hate list, they were allowed to  pull us about all game and he summed up a wonderfully biased performance by blowing for the softest of shoves for the last play of the game.

Need a stroke of luck or just something to go our way really soon before heads drop.

I dont put the good performance down to the system. We've proved over the last 4 years we're very capable of a good low block performance and getting results in games like these.

Next Friday will provide a more realistic gauge as to how we're doing.

[optimistic_red]

My biggest feeling from the ground is all to do with the bias the big teams seem to get. Not sure if it was enough yesterday to change the outcome, but we are already at a big disadvantage the officials don't need to help them more.

I haven't watched the game back or the highlights, so these are memories from the ground.
Williams yellow card (Gives Saka option to go at Williams all game - good job he bottled it)
Fouls 14 - 8 (it was a very even game on all the stats, same challenge appears to result in no foul for us but foul for them)
Ndoye offside (sitting in a good position in ground and it looked very close)
2nd half Injury time (3 sub breaks, goal, stoppage for Ndoye/Gabriel heads injury)
Made up foul on last corner

So, if I forget all of that, it was a good performance from the team. We have to fix the goalscoring problem, and if we do I think we'll be alright.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Very disappointing corners yesterday.

Their keeper claimed everything.

Did it not cross anyones mind to put a man in front of the keeper to block him or at least make it more difficult for him.

Teams do it to us all the time.

[JohnG]

The way I have referred to it in the past is a "big 6 tax". It's not necessarily big decisions and conscious, but it's the soft ones that are given one way but not so much the other. The yellow on Williams looked soft, and as always players go down with minimal contact, it becomes hard to get a flow going in attack sometimes. The fact that Arsenal had two fouls equal or worse than Williams given, but no card just adds more weight to it.

There was a moment late on when Arsenal had an attacking free kick, went to take it quickly and hit it straight to one of our players. And the ref took it back, so they took it properly and crossed it into the box, thankfully nothing came of it.

As said, 3 minutes of added time was just a joke, doesn't cover all the subs and their goal let alone anything else.

[stirred]

The way I have referred to it in the past is a "big 6 tax". It's not necessarily big decisions and conscious, but it's the soft ones that are given one way but not so much the other. The yellow on Williams looked soft, and as always players go down with minimal contact, it becomes hard to get a flow going in attack sometimes. The fact that Arsenal had two fouls equal or worse than Williams given, but no card just adds more weight to it.

There was a moment late on when Arsenal had an attacking free kick, went to take it quickly and hit it straight to one of our players. And the ref took it back, so they took it properly and crossed it into the box, thankfully nothing came of it.

As said, 3 minutes of added time was just a joke, doesn't cover all the subs and their goal let alone anything else.

I think the handicap from the ‘smaller’ decisions is significant. People talk of marginal gains but the gain from official’s bias is large. The changes in possession. The yellow card that constrains your player. The amount of free kicks that you have to defend outside your box, that you don’t get close to your own box or theirs and so on. Sometimes they score when a marginal kick could have been given like at Villa just outside our own box that led to the goal, or on GibbsWhite at Palace. The offside that is blown for instead of letting play develop. And so on. The sooner we can get AI and remove humans the better, because the system shows no signs of correcting itself and has definitely got worse.

[JollyLollyAussie]

I noticed the crap corners also yesterday. do we not think on our feet or try things on the training pitch, so many small things like this need to be addressed so that we are not pushovers on matchdays. I know I harp on about but where are the leadership on the pitch to sort this out as it occurs its not down to OG as he is not playing!

[Salvatore Matrecano]

On the positive side I thought we were excellent at defending their set pieces which seemed to be their only game plan.
Sels stays rooted to his line though, done that his whole career, as pointed out it’s noticeable how much more aggressive Raya was in the same situations.