The 3pm KO results did Forest no favours. A draw for Burnley, and late, late wins for both Leeds and West Ham. Bloody Agent Nuno! The pressure was on Forest for the evening telly game. Losing to Arsenal would mean that we are four points from the drop.
The team news landed. It looked decent, but wtf was the summer transfer window all about? £200M spunked, with only one summer recruit in the starting line up. JESUS, etc.
Forest got off to a decent start. This surprised me, and no doubt the 30,000 or so at the World Famous. Earlier in the afternoon I had told my Man Utd pal at Wiv Town that a two or three nil defeat would be fine. Just don’t bloody BATTER us on the telly.
Ana looked fighting fit. It’s too much to pin on one man, but he manages to balance the back four so we are a complete unit. Imagine what might have been if Wood hadn’t missed all season. Oh, and how about Nuno not shouting his mouth off as well? Why not go full circle and get Elanga back on loan. Sigh. We were bloody good last season.
Dominguez also impressed. He was clearly up for the scrap. This is exactly what we need right now. I remember during the first relegation season back in 1992-3 when a returning Neil Webb declared himself fit for BC, and ready to fight relegation. Webby was a classy player, but he was no Dominguez Dog of War. There’s no jingoism in there, btw. Phew.
I just knew Arsenal would score. That’s the Forest way - play well in front of the telly cameras, but then allow the big boys to take the lead.
Hang on, this hasn’t happened. Blimey. I went into HT feeling very happy.
Behind this resurgence was Murillo, MGW and Anderson all back on form. Every Forest player was a 7/10 or above as the game progressed. My optimism grew as the game continued knowing that we had Sels back in goal. wtf was Dyche thinking in dropping him?
The Ndoye sub was interesting. Dyche was clearly sending out a transfer window message to the Big Fat Greek. And to Taiwo. QPR would be a good fit for T right now. Or even D***y, for shit ‘n’ giggles.
Forest somehow got away with what I thought was a very valid penalty claim from Arsenal. You win some, you lose some.
Or rather you don’t. I’ve not celebrated a 0-0 draw with such enthusiasm for some time. We’re still deep in the relegation scrap. I hope we focus on the PL, and treat the Europa as a bit of a break. Dropping back down to the Championship horrifies me.