Nottm Forest vs Arsenal 10/02/96

Nottm Forest (0) 0 - 1 (0) Arsenal

FA Carling Premiership

City Ground, 10th Februuary 1996

Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Linighan, Winterburn, Jensen, Hillier, 
         Helder, Merson, Bergkamp, Wright
         Subs: Hughes, Morrow, Hartson

Forest:  Crossley, Lyttle, Cooper, Chettle, Phillips, Gemmill,
         Campbell, Stone, Black, Bart-Williams, Roy
         Subs: McGregor (Gemmill 64), Lee (Black 72), Haaland

Result  : Nottingham Forest     (0) 0   Arsenal                 1 (0)
Scorers:                                Bergkamp 60

Bookings: Lee                           Keown                         
Sent off: Lee 85                             
                                     
Att     : 27222
Referee : R A Hart (Darlington)

A fairly satisfying result with a second successive away league victory, and against a team which hadn't previously lost at home in the league for over 12 months. It has to be said though that it wasn't the greatest of Arsenal performances against a Forest side that played rather poorly, but nonetheless a solid all round display, which was more inventive in the second half thoroughly meritted the win.

The first half was fairly uneventful, mainly characterised by Arsenal having the greater share of possession, but only occasionally threatening to break down the Forest defence, while the home side looked even less likely to breach Seaman's goal. Keown and Linighan looked pretty solid and were backed up well defensively by the rather plodding midfield pairing of Jensen and Hillier.

Can't really remember a great deal of incident from the first half. The most likely source of goals was probably via the runs of Helder down the left. From one of these, his cross picked out Bergkamp beyond the far post, but from a fairly acute angle his shot went into the side netting.

Midway through the half Arsenal were unlucky not to have taken the lead. A Helder corner from the left found Keown unmarked in the area and his header beat Crossley but was deflected wide for a corner by the defender guarding the near post. The resulting corner was half cleared, but picked up by Merson just beyond the right hand corner of the penalty area. He chipped back in and it was Keown again who looped a header goalwards, but with the keeper beaten it bounced back off the crossbar and was scrambled clear.

At the other end the closest Forest came soon afterwards was when Stone pulled the ball back from the right to Bart-Williams on the edge of the area, but his 20 yard drive whizzed a couple of feet wide of the right hand post. Towards the end of the half though, Forest might have stolen the lead when Campbell was allowed to run at the Arsenal defence and he did well to burst into the box, but his shot was straight at Seaman who saved fairly comfortably.

Meanwhile Helder was still causing the greatest problems for the home defenders. One early chipped cross found Wright unmarked but a long way out and he mistimed his attempt to get some power in the header. Not long before half time Helder broke clear again down the left and cut into the the box but dragged his cross-shot from 18 yards wide of the far post.

The second half was much livelier, particularly at the Forest end. Arsenal might have taken the lead early on when a nice move saw the two Dutchmen combining with Merson who finally stabbed the ball into the area for Wrighty, but his shot on the turn bobbled a yard or two wide of the far post.

When Arsenal did eventually take the lead it was via the Bergkamp-Wright combination finally clicking into gear again. A chip forward by Dixon looked to have been covered by Chettle, but he miscontrolled it slightly and Bergkamp nipped in to flick the ball over his head and set off towards goal. He played it inside to Wright and then continued his run into the area to collect the return pass and break free into the area. As Crossley came out to meet him, he showed some classy coolness and stabbed the ball past the keeper's dive with the outside of his right foot. Judging by the TV pictures he was clearly onside.

Almost immediately Forest replaced Gemmill with McGregor and he moved to the right wing with Stone moving into the middle. This almost seemed to do the trick for Forest because a few minutes later Campbell held the ball up on the edge of the area and then played it across into the path of Stone making a run down the middle. From my position low down at the other end, and in line with the shot it looked like a certain goal, but Seaman somehow got his fingers to the ball and touched it round the post.

Soon after that, Jason Lee came on for Kingsley Black and Roy went out onto the left wing. He wasn't on the field for long though. He and Keown were first booked, I think after Lee reacted to a Keown tackle. Then minutes later he was booked again, apparently for reckless use of his arms, though I was mystified at the time as to what it was for.

Anyway, Forest hadn't previously looked likely to salvage the game, and now down to ten men it was even less likely. Indeed Arsenal could have added to their one goal. Bergkamp broke from the halfway line, checked, and was forced wide by a defender. He still carried on and curled in a lovely little cross from the right which found WWW unmarked about 10 yards out. Wrighty's finishing was again slightly off the mark though, and his header beat Crossley only to crash against the bar. He was quickest to react though, and as the ball spun up into the air he was across to head towards the top corner from the corner of the 6-yd box. Crossley however had reacted equally well and somehow recovered to get across and palm the ball over the bar.

With Forest attempting to push forward more, they were leaving more space at the back and Arsenal, particularly Helder, Bergkamp and Wright were breaking quickly. Helder had another cross shot which went wide of the far post, and Bergkamp also came close to adding to his goal a few minutes from time. Wrighty played a lovely first time pass to him in the right side of the area, his first attempt was blocked by Cooper and he collected the rebound, but from an acute angle his followup shot went into the side netting.

Overall a reasonably good performance from Arsenal. With Keown returning the defence looked more solid, and I thought both he and Linighan had quite good games. The latter even went charging upfield on one long forward run, though it ended fairly typically when he played a bad pass at the end of it. In midfield Jensen and Hillier did the holding job well enough, and Hillier even played one or two nice passes.

Helder had another pretty good game, though again he tended to promise more than he actually delivered. Wrighty's finishing was again perhaps slightly off-key, but otherwise he had a good game, putting in his usual 110% effort. I thought Bergkamp had a pretty poor game up until he scored, but he then started to look more like the player he was before Christmas. His combination with Wright looked as though it was beginning to gel again which hopefully augurs well for Wednesday. He and Helder have apparently preferred playing against Villa to playing for Holland in a friendly against Belgium.

report by Derek Brownjohn

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