Championship side Nottingham Forest knocked Arsenal out in the third round of the FA Cup, as substitute Lewis Grabban came off the bench to fire home a deserved winner and seal a huge 1-0 victory.
Fifteen minutes after coming on as a substitute, Grabban tapped home a cross with seven minutes remaining to set up a fourth round clash with holders Leicester City.
Arsenal have now been knocked out at the third round stage of the FA Cup for just the second time in their last 25 seasons.
And Forest was the last team to knock them out this early in a 4-2 win in the 2017/18 campaign.
In the opening stages, Ben White cut in from the right side and tested the waters early with an early shot, but his effort went wide of the post.
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Shortly after, Rob Holding fired an audacious volley wide as the visitors pushed for the opener.
But Forest responded with a spell of possession of their own to rile up the City Ground fans.
Eddie Nketiah, whose future remains unresolved with his contract expiring next summer, struck a fierce effort wide of the post for the Gunners’ closest chance of the match with 30 minutes played.
Nuno Tavares was having a tough game on the left flank and Mikel Arteta decided to bring him off for Kieran Tierney.
The Portuguese was not carrying an injury and was visibly irate by the decision, chucking his globes to the ground as he made way for the Scot.
The sides deservedly went into the interval all square with few clear cut opportunities for either side.
Brennan Johnson had the best chance of the match so far as he fired a low effort at Bernd Leno who got down well to save.
The game sprung to life in the second half and Nketiah should have got the opener for Arsenal when Bukayo Saka crossed an inch-perfect delivery for him to completely miscue his header.
James Garner fired a superb curling free-kick goalwards but Leno blocked well, but Forest would be aggrieved not to have a penalty seconds after when Jack Colback was hauled over in the box.
But the hosts got their deserved goal late on when Grabban fired home the winner to seal the latest upset in a weekend of shock results in the oldest competition in football.
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COMMENTS
Wow, Arsenal bundled out of the FA cup in the 3rd round!
A tad embarrassing for Bukayo Saka and his colleagues.
Arsenal were the better side, and controlled large portions of the game. But as the saying goes – YOU CAN’T WIN A MATCH WITHOUT PUTTING THE BALL IN THE NET.
Arsenal contrived to miss chance after chance after chance.
Nottingham Forest converted the only chance they had, and the rest is history.
It wasn’t going to be an easy game for Arsenal having lost Thomas Partey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe and Mo Elneny to Afcon, these are partly the face of Arsenal. However, our own man, Nicholas Randall is the happiest man for this big win. Being the second oldest professional football club in the English Football League and for the fact that Nottingham Forest is
No9 on our League table, it is worth the ceremony. Even when we scored(as a Nottingham Forest fan), Arsenal was frustrated to understand it had long entered but continues to bellow. I’m already looking forward to our next game.
I placed a bet on the match fellow fan. Bet9ja gave us 6.60 while Arsenal got 1.48 odds. Smiling to the bank right now. Our next match is looking like a jackpot already. Good luck !
Arteta thinks Aubameyang is the problem of Arsenal. The wind will soon blow.
Aubameyang was rightly punished. No player is bigger than a club. As for the match, that’s the tradition of fa cup where there’s always an upset. A non league side can beat a premier league champions
Arteta has inferiority complex with big names. What happen with Ozil? Kids does not look play soccer. Look at Man City and Liverpool