- Safiu Kehinde
Arsenal’s title hope has suffered another setback as frustrating 0-0 draw against Nottingham Forest sank it further.
Despite dominating Wednesday’s Premier League match at the City Ground against third-placed Forest, Arsenal failed to close the gap between them and runaway leader, Liverpool.
Prior to the game, the Gunners were 11 points behind Liverpool.
The goalless draw saw the gap to extended to 13 points after Liverpool later beat Newcastle United 2-0.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest remained six points behind Arsenal in third place, keeping up their hopes of Champions League football next season, as they advanced to 48 points.
The Nuno Espirito-led Forest did well to absorb Arsenal’s pressure in the first half, restricting them to no shots on target, although the Gunners were inches away from opening the scoring in the 24th minute after left back Riccardo Calafiori hit the woodwork.
A dip of the shoulder from Ethan Nwaneri near the end of the first half set up a chance at the near post but it was blocked before the Arsenal attacker could get his effort away.
Mikel Merino’s 53rd-minute header from Declan Rice’s corner was the visitors’ first effort on target but it was denied by Forest keeper Matz Sels.
Forest took 64 minutes to win their first corner and five minutes later their top scorer Chris Wood forced a routine save out of David Raya in the Arsenal goal.
It was a second successive match without a goal for Arsenal after they lost at home to West Ham United and Forest have won only one of their last five league games.
“We dominated the game. We tried in many different ways. We insisted but lacked that spark, that final pass to unlock a well organised team. We have to generate more shots on target,” Arteta said.