Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal: Gunners are knocked OUT of the FA Cup by Championship opponents as Lewis Grabban nets late winner after Mikel Arteta’a side struggled to create chances

It is more than two decades since we saw Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and here by the banks of the Trent was a reminder of what they once used to bring us.

Playing bravely and cleverly in their traditional Garibaldi red, Steve Cooper’s team from the Championship were too good, too eager and too ambitious for an Arsenal team dressed entirely in white.

Arsenal were pale in every single way. They were insipid and without heart. They ended the game without a single short on target and headed home with the unfortunate status of being this weekend’s FA Cup fall guys. It was fully deserved.

Nottingham Forest cause an FA Cup upset as the knocked Arsenal out in the third round after a 1-0 victory at the City Ground

Forest substitute Lewis Grabban (left) broke the deadlock as he scored the only goal of the game in the 82nd minute

It was the second time Arsenal have been beaten in the third round by Nottingham Forest at The City Ground in four years

On TV Roy Keane – a former Forest captain – was withering.

Arsenal’s strip – that included some utterly pointless all white numbers – was worn as part of the club’s admirable ‘No More Red’ campaign, designed to highlight the scourge of youth gun crime in the capital.

Keane’s half-time take was that Mikel Arteta’s team looked like Real Madrid but played like a pub team. Nicely put but it was an arguable comparison. Even the Dog and Duck have the occasional strike on goal.

Forest were certainly the more dangerous side all evening. They sometimes struggled to find the right pass but that can happen even against a Premier League team playing as wretchedly as this one. This was not a game awash with clear chances. Forest had two while Arsenal fashioned just one.

Club captain Grabban was able to ram the ball home at the Trent End after Brennan Johnson’s perfect delivery into the box

Ryan Yates celebrates after feeding the ball to Johnson in the build up to the goal following Albert Sambi Lokonga’s loose ball

MATCH FACTS

Nottingham Forest: (3-4-3) Samba 7; Worrall 6.5, McKenna 7, Cook 7; Spence 7, Yates 6.5, Garner 6.5, Colback 7; Zinckernagel 8 (Cafu 75mins 6), Davis 6.5 (Grabban 67mins 7.5), Johnson 7.5.

Goals: Grabban 83

Booked: Zinckernagel, Spence

Steve Cooper: 8

Arsenal: (4-2-3-1) Leno 6.5; Cedric 6, White 6, Holding 6, Tavares 5 (Tierney 33mins 6); Lokonga 5.5, Patino 6 (Lacazette 69mins 6); Saka 5.5, Odegaard 6.5, Martinelli 5.5; Nketiah 5.5.

Goals: None

Booked: Martinelli

Mikel Arteta: 5

Referee: Craig Pawson 6

Attendance: 24,938

But when the home team finally sprung forward to dismantle the country’s fourth best team with seven minutes to go, it brought them a quite wonderful goal.

Young Albert Sambi Lokonga was the Arsenal villain of the piece – giving the ball away in his own half with seven minutes left – but over the course of the game he was not alone. There were other candidates.

Nevertheless, when Lokonga lost it to Forest’s Ryan Yates and the ball was fed wide to Brennan Johnson, Arsenal were in very real trouble.

The only question was whether the ball across goal from Johnson was going to be of the required standard. There were Arsenal bodies between him and his target at the far post.

But, as it turned out, the low cross was perfect and substitute Lewis Grabban rammed it home at the Trent End to cause mayhem among more than 20,000 home supporters that were here among a very heartening full house.

It was a deadly sucker punch Forest goal reminiscent of better times and more than enough to see off an Arsenal team that did not have the gumption to rally. It was also a goal that owed something to Forest manager Cooper.

He had handed loan signing Keinan Davis a start up front and the Aston Villa player had put in a good shift.

But when he tired, Cooper sent on Grabban, the club captain who no doubt feels he would like to start more often.

Grabban, who will be 34 on Wednesday, has already scored goals as a substitute this season and this was arguably the most important.

Forest boss Steve Cooper handed loan signing Keinan Davis (left) a start up front and the Aston Villa player put in a good shift

Arsenal left-back Nuno Tavares (pictured) threw a tantrum as he was substituted off for Kieran Trippier after 34 minutes

Eddie Nketiah (centre) mistimed a header to open the scoring as he knocked the ball wide from Bukayo Saka’s delivery

It is hard to suggest this Arsenal team does not care or was not trying. Some of Arteta’s players looked emotionally shattered at the end. Equally, they simply must be better than this if they are to make good on some of the promise they have shown this season.

Cooper spoke afterwards of his team’s style of play and his idea of how a Forest team should use the ball. The former Swansea manager wishes to be true to his new club’s traditions.

Click Here: canterbury-bankstown bulldogs rugby store

Arteta has similarly entrenched ideas but too often the Spaniard’s team fall short of other, more basic standards, such as application and mental toughness.

Here, seeing his team struggling down their left side after half an hour, Arteta was forced to remove defender Nuno Tavares. The 21-year-old responded by throwing his gloves to the floor and the picture of a young player sulking on the substitutes’ bench perhaps served as a reasonable summary of Arsenal’s evening.

Manchester United James Garner (far left) belted a free kick from 25-yards out but saw his effort blocked by Bernd Leno

Arteta picked a side strong enough to win but they never looked like doing so. Forest had the game’s outstanding player in the Dane Philip Zinckernagel and there were others almost as impressive. Johnson and the right wing-back Djed Spence were among them.

Neither team really came close to scoring in a first half that began brightly but fizzled out. After the break, though, Bernd Leno saved well from Zinckernagel and from a James Garner free-kick. For Arsenal, the only threat arrived not long before Forest’s goal when Eddie Nketiah headed a great chance hopelessly wide.

At that point it wasn’t clear whether Forest were quite good enough to punish Arsenal’s sheer lack of identity. They were.

Afterwards, Copper said his team had been ‘comfortable’. They had been that, too. How very damning.

Forest’s right wing-back Djed Spence (centre) continuously darted deep to cause trouble for Arsenal’s backline

Why did Arsenal wear all-white?

Arsenal played in a one-off all-white kit as part of their No More Red campaign to combat knife crime among youngsters.

The initiative promotes alternatives to gang culture for kids — such as youth clubs — after a record number of teenagers were stabbed to death in London.

Actor Idris Elba, a Gunners fan, is spearheading the campaign and, on ITV before the match, he said: ‘Last year 30 kids died senselessly over knife crime. Ian Wright and I teamed up with Arsenal and adidas to make a point.

‘I started a campaign called Don’t Stab Your Future — it’s not subtle and it’s not meant to be. I want the kids to think about their future. It’s white because no more red means no more bloodshed.

‘Football is watched by teenagers, so we are using this partnership to say, “Let’s make a stand against knife crime”. These shirts are not for sale but we want to give them to kids who say, “I am going to change my life, I am going to go to a safe space, a youth club, rather than go to a gang”.’

Wright added: ‘The white shirt is about inspiration and action. We want to build more safe spaces and help the charities do their work.’

Re-live how the action unfolded as Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup to Nottingham Forest with ISABEL BALDWIN in our live blog below…

Isabel Baldwin

Host commentator

19:03

Full-time

Only twice have Arsenal been knocked out in the third round and both times it has come at the hands of Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

Lewis Grabban’s 82nd minute goal secures the 1-0 for Steve Cooper’s side who face Leicester in the next round.

19:02

90 + 1 Mins: last minute change for Arsenal

Arsenal hope a last-gasp change can take them to extra time as Kolasinac comes on for Cedric.

18:58

Arsenal have just three minutes added time to avoid an upset

18:52

82 Mins: GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal

Nottingham Forest finally break the deadlock!

Another great break from Forest produces the first goal of the game. Yates delivers a perfect cross into the box which serves the chance up on a plate for substitute Grabban.

The club captain shins the ball past Leno and into goal.

There’s something about Forest against Arsenal at the City Ground in the FA Cup third round.