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Nottm Forest (0) 2 - 1 (0) Arsenal

City Ground, Sat 21st December 1996

FA Carling Premiership

Result : Nottingham Forest     (0) 2   Arsenal                 (0) 1
Scorers: Haaland 67,89                 Wright 63

Arsenal: Lukic, McGowan (Parlour 69), Linighan, Keown, Bould, Winterburn, 
         Platt, Garde (Morrow 78), Wright, Merson, Bergkamp (Hartson 74)
         Subs Not Used: Bartram, Marshall
         Sent Off: Wright (70th minute, violent conduct)

Forest: Crossley, Pearce, Cooper, Chettle, Saunders, Campbell, Woan, 
        Jerkan (Lyttle 85), Allen, Haaland, Roy (Clough 65)
        Subs Not Used: Gemmill, Phillips, Fettis
        Booked: Jerkan
A fairly predictable result really, given the circumstances - Forest fired up because of Clarke going, Psycho taking over - Arsenal lacking Seaman, Dixon, Adams and Vieira. However, the 1st half was fairly comfortable with Arsenal creating the best chances. Platt missed horribly after turning well on a Bergkamp pass, Keown scuffed a chance after a delightful exchange of 1-2s with Bergkamp in the area. Wrighty shoved Merse after he'd said something following the former's backheel which didn't come off. Apart from that Arsenal were really only threatened when Chris Allen ran past McGowan down the left.

Forest came out for the 2nd half, having obviously been wound up by Pearce. Still, it was Arsenal who took the lead with a gift of a goal. Crossley dropped a cross from Winterburn, Keown challenged for the loose ball and it broke to Wright. He turned to lash it high into the net from about 15 yards. However, celebrations were fairly short lived as Forest equalised 4 minutes later. This goal too had an element of luck, as the Arsenal defence was momentarily disorganised with McGowan lying in the middle of the penalty area having just injured himself stretching to clear a previous attack. Saunders beat Winterburn on the left, crossed and Haaland took advantage of the confusion to sweep home a shot from just inside the area.

Two minutes later Wrighty got himself sent off for the 1st time in his Arsenal career. Jerkan (who'd already been booked) blatantly body checked Wright and the ref gave a free kick this time (having earlier waved play on in a similar situation). I didn't see it myself, but the TV pictures later showed WWW going over to Jerkan and giving him a slight barge which caused the Croatian to collapse like the proverbial sack of shit. The ref didn't see the incident either but his assistant did, and after talking to him the red card came out straight away.

After that Arsenal were up against it, as Forest gained even greater encouragement. The winner also had an element of luck though. Campbell and Linighan challenged for a ball in the area, it got caught between them and then ricocheted out straight to the feet of Haaland. From about 10 yards he couldn't really miss. 

Lukic      6.5  
McGowan    6.0  
Winterburn 6.0  
Keown      7.0  
Bould      6.5  
Linighan   6.5  
Platt      6.0  
Garde      7.5  
Merson     7.0  
Wright     6.0
Bergkamp   7.0

report by Derek Brownjohgn

copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV

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