Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal: Late Grabban goal dumps sloppy Gunners out of FA Cup

Mikel
Arteta
returned
to
the
bench
after
a
bout
of
coronavirus
forced
him
to
miss
arguably
their
best
performance
of
the
season
in
the
2-1
defeat
to
Manchester
City
last
weekend.

But
he
will
not
have
been
happy
with
what
he
saw
at
the
City
Ground,
with
the
Gunners’ lethargy
and
lack
of
inspiration
in
the
early
stages
a
sign
of
things
to
come.

The
Premier
League
side
were
twice
fortunate
not
to
fall
behind
in
the
second
half,
but
their
luck
finally
ran
out
seven
minutes
from
time,
substitute
Grabban
getting
the
winner.

Neither
side
impressed
in
a
largely
dull
first
half,
with
the
only
half
chance
falling
to
Eddie
Nketiah,
whose
left-footed
effort
deflected
into
the
side-netting.

One
of
the
more
notable
occurrences
in
the
first
half
was
the
withdrawal
of
Nuno
Tavares
after
a
woefully
sloppy
34
minutes
–
the
left-back
petulantly
throwing
his
gloves
to
the
ground
in
response.

Forest
carved
out
their
first
opportunity
soon
after
the
break,
Brennan
Johnson
darting
away
from
Rob
Holding
and
squaring
the
ball
to
Philip
Zinckernagel,
whose
first-time
effort
was
saved
by
Bernd
Leno.

Nketiah
then
badly
miscued
a
header
at
the
other
end
to
let
Forest
off
the
hook,
before
Leno
was
again
called
into
action,
keeping
James
Garner’s
30-yard
free-kick
out
of
the
top
corner.

Leno
was
helpless
late
on,
however,
as
Ryan
Yates’ teasing
cross
was
turned
in
by
Grabban,
with
Arsenal
unable
to
claw
back
the
deficit.