Arsenal vs Nottm Forest 29/08/95

Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Bould, Winterburn, Keown, Parlour,
         Platt, Merson, Bergkamp, Wright
         Subs: Helder (Helder 70), Jensen, Bartram 

Forest: Crossley, Lyttle, Cooper, Chettle, Pearce, Stone, Phillips, 
        Woan, Gemmill, Campbell, Roy
        Subs: Lee (Roy 89), Silenzi, Bart-Williams  
           
Result  : Arsenal               (1) 1   Nottingham Forest      (0) 1
Scorers:  Platt  41                     Campbell 63

Bookings: 
                                     
Att     : 38248
Referee : L Dilkes (Mossley)

Another ultimately disappointing draw at Highbury last night, though brightened by a sublime goal from David Platt. A draw was the most Arsenal deserved, because it was the familiar story of more home possession, but the away side carving out the better chances. Rather a disorienting evening actually, with Forest in a strip not too different from the old beloved 'away yellow', Campbell playing for the opposition and a Parlour doppelganger in the shape of Gemmill.

For most of the first half I thought Arsenal played quite brightly, at least with some quite nice approach play. It was only when it came to the final ball that things went wrong. Early on Bergkamp collected the ball wide on the left, came inside and made room for a shot with a nice shimmy, but his 25 yarder though dipping sharply still cleared the bar by a couple of feet. Another good Bergkamp attempt was deflected wide for a corner and Merson also had a run in from the left but his shot all along the ground went a couple of feet wide of the far post.

Wrighty had a couple of good runs along the left, getting round Lyttle both times to get free along the goal line, but the first time he played a woeful ball into the middle completely missing any red shirt, and the second a covering defender got back well to block for a corner. On another occasion Wright broke down the left, but blasted a shot from an angle way over the bar when there were at least 2 red shirts free in the middle screaming for a cross. Another promising move down the right ended with Parlour in a lot of room for a cross, but he completely overhit it and the ball sailed over all the red shirts in front of goal.

Meanwhile Forest weren't doing a great deal in the way of attacking, but on the few occasions they did they usually looked dangerous. Early on Roy looked to have space for a shot from the edge of the box but it was on his right foot so by the time he'd worked it onto his left Bould had got across to block. Bouldy then blemished an otherwise sterling performance to give Campbell what was probably Forest's best chance of the half. Souperman laid the ball back to Stone on the left corner of the area and Bould allowed him to carry on unmarked into the area apparently deciding that Stone needed 3 men to stop him. A simple ball into the area then left Campbell clear on goal albeit at an acute angle. Needless to say he hit it straight at Seaman.

Roy had a similar chance later in the half when the ball broke through to him off Campbell and a couple of defenders, but again Seaman made a good block. Meanwhile at the other end, Wrighty almost scored another stunning goal. Following a corner Keown played a nice little chip onto the head of Adams at the far post. Tony nodded it back into the middle where it fell behind Wright and he reacted with an instinctive overhead shot which flew inches wide of the post.

The goal when it came was probably worth the admission price alone. Parlour received the ball down the left hand channel and looked up to see Dixon had stolen up unmarked on the right. A beautifully flighted chip found the full back and his first time volleyed cross was met with a stunning right foot volley from Platt, about 15 yards out, which flew past Crossley into the top left corner.

Arsenal started the second half at a good pace and dominated the first 15 minutes, though again the final pass or shot was usually lacking. A good move down the right ended with Dixon blasting wide from the corner of the box. A scramble in the Forest box ended with the ball breaking to Merson on the edge of the box, but his attempt to swerve a shot with the outside of his foot passed just over Bergkamp's head and a yard or so wide of the near post.

In a rare break meanwhile, Roy hinted at things to come with vicious shot from 25 yards which cleared the bar by inches. Woan also missed a good chance, lashing a shot from the left across the face of goal and wide of the far post, before the equaliser arrived. Gemmill was allowed to run at the defence and rolled a simple ball forward to Campbell's feet. He turned and with 3 defenders the wrong side of him cracked a shot from just inside the area across Seaman and just inside the far post.

After that Arsenal seemed to let it slip even more and it was Forest who looked the more likely winners. Helder replaced Parlour, who I thought had a pretty good game, and won an early corner with a good run, but then did little of import for the rest of the match. Stone began to get past Winterburn rather too easily, and Forest began to have more possession and threatened too often for comfort, though Adams and Bould as ever usually broke things up, and I don't recall much in the way of real chances.

Towards the end of the game with Forest pushing forward more, gaps were beginning to appear for the Arsenal attack to exploit. Wright was allowed to chase and retrieve a ball down the left just before it crossed the goal line. He held it and played it back towards the inrushing Bergkamp and Platt. It went just behind Bergkamp so he dummied an attempt to control the ball and left it to Platt, steaming in behind him. Under challenge from Gemmill, his sidefoot went a foot or two wide of the near post.

There was another near thing a few minutes from time. Wrighty had won free kick in good position on the right when Chettle tripped him as Wright skipped past. However Merson's free kick was cleared to Roy, but his attempted pass out of defence on the left was blocked by Helder. The ball broke to Bergkamp, and he checked back onto his right foot and curled in a lovely cross to the far post where Wrighty just got a touch on the ball with his head which unfortunately took it just out of Adams' reach as he charged in unmarked behind him.

There was still time for Campbell to almost win it for Forest. A ball broke to him on the edge of the area and he lashed in a volley which Seaman did superbly to just get a touch to at full stretch and it flew just wide of the far post.

In the end it was all rather disheartening. In the first hour there was some encouraging build up play, but too often it was wasted with a bad final ball or shot. According to the ArseTV statistics Arsenal had something like 21 attempts with only 5 on target, as against Forest's 9 and 6. The big disappointment for me was Bergkamp. He showed some nice touches and on occasion his obvious class showed but most of the time he seemed behind the pace and wanted too much time. It is true though, that Arsenal weren't playing to his strengths. As the game wore on there was more and more hoofing the ball forward. Against Middlesborough it was noticeable how much Seaman was passing the ball out of his area, but last night he was mostly doing the old roll the ball out and thump it high and long.

Wrighty was his usual ebullient self, but Merson seemed less on form. I thought Parlour did well, particularly when he came inside and Keown did what he is there for well, but when it comes to creating anything is next to hopeless. Platt was pretty anonymous before his goal, but came into it more afterwards and played one or two nice passes. Dixon, Bould and Adams all had reasonably solid games (though I thought Campbell played pretty well and gave Adams as much trouble as anyone in recent times), but Winterburn worried me the way Stone was consistently beating him towards the end of the match.

Perhaps with Platt out for the next couple of games at least it might be worth a change in tactics. Something needs to be done to give Bergkamp some confidence and playing Hartson alongside Wright might give him a chance in the position he is supposed to favour. A more compact midfield trio of Parlour, Merson and Jensen/Keown would then be required to get through more work if we are not to be vulnerable on the wings.

report by Derek Brownjohn

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