By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-10-18 17:46:54 | Updated at 2026-10-19 17:14:32
23 hours ago
It wasn’t a vintage performance but Arsenal got the job done at the City Ground. Look back on a hard-fought Premier League win with our Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal stats page.
Noni Madueke came off the bench to make the difference for Arsenal as his deflected effort clinched a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
The reigning Premier League champions were largely flat at the City Ground on Sunday, yet they had the quality to get the job done in the end.
A low-key first half saw Kai Havertz head over from Declan Rice‘s free-kick, but little else of note occurred at either end.
Forest, shorn of the injured Morgan Gibbs-White, were quick out of the blocks after the interval, with Liam Delap almost setting up Neco Williams.
Gabriel Magalhães headed over from a corner, before Rice blasted over the crossbar from inside the Forest box.
Yet the deadlock was finally broken in the 80th minute as Madueke, who replaced Eberechi Eze at half-time, skipped in from the left, took on Daniel Munoz and found the far corner courtesy of a huge deflection off Jair Cunha.
Oliver Glasner’s team came on strong in the closing stages, with Rice denying Chris Wood a free shot before Murillo, on his 100th appearance for Forest, fired just over at the end of a brilliant run.
But their fate was sealed when Ezri Konsa made a fine recovery challenge on Delap, condemning Forest to a third straight defeat.
Arsenal’s Away-Day Specialist Strikes Again
Madueke has scored 13 of his 17 Premier League goals away from home (76%), including all four for Arsenal. This is the highest away ratio of any player with 15+ goals in Premier League history.
The England winger is also coming up big in the key moments, too. Three of his last five goals in the top flight have been the first of the game.
It was far from a classic, as evidenced by both teams managing just one attempt on target between them. Forest had two of those, but Arsenal made theirs count, even if they did get lucky with Cunha’s deflection.
This is a familiar scoreline for the Gunners, though. Since Arteta took charge in December 2019, Arsenal have registered 32 1-0 wins in the Premier League, the joint-most of any team, along with Everton.
Forest, meanwhile, find themselves in the relegation zone with just five points from their seven games.
And they are particularly struggling at home.
Forest are one of just two sides without a home league goal in Europe’s big-five leagues this season, along with Schalke.
They are just the fifth side in English top-flight history to fail to score in their first four home matches of a campaign, after West Brom in 1921-22, Everton in 1998-99, Crystal Palace in 2018-19, and Huddersfield Town in 2018-19.
In fact, Forest have won just one of their last 15 Premier League games at the City Ground (D8 L6) since the first of these matches.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal stats from Sunday’s Premier League meeting at the City Ground.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal: Post-Match Opta Facts
Facts to follow…
Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
