Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal: Taiwo Awoniyi seals Premier League safety and confirms Man City champions
The title race was all but ended with the Gunners’ loss to Brighton a week ago and City would have had a chance to complete the task themselves on Sunday when they host Chelsea, even if Mikel Arteta’s side had secured victory at the City Ground.
Instead, it was a harmless defeat for Arsenal, another poor performance at a difficult period for a side that held an eight-point lead at the top of the table at the start of April. Taiwo Awoniyi gave Forest a somewhat chaotic first-half lead and it was enough for a result that also secured them Premier League safety with a game to go.
Arsenal have won just two of their last eight games, a streak that has coincided with City enjoying an 11-game winning streak in the league and allowing the champions to secure the first leg of what is hoped to be a treble-winning season, with FA Cup and Champions League finals next month.
The Gunners operated at the city ground with Thomas Partey at right-back and Jakub Kiwior at the other end, a system that didn’t bring any real success and gave them great difficulty in crushing the red shirt crowd.
Forest took his chance when Martin Odegaard’s poor pass from Morgan Gibbs-White was intercepted and he pushed forward before slotting through to Awoniyi. It seemed too difficult for the striker but Gabriel threw it off him as he slipped in and the ball arced past Aaron Ramsdale to give Awoniyi his fifth goal in three games.
The pattern of the game was well established: Arsenal had more than 80% possession of the ball but used it very little. Gabriel Jesus had occasional great turns on the edge of the box but Forest never looked like giving up their lead before half-time.
Things didn’t improve for the Gunners after the break, continuing to let the ball play around without showing any signs of causing any problems for Forest. Gibbs-White had a chance to end the game after White made a mistake, only to have his shot go into the side netting.
Seven minutes later, the board reaped groans from the home fans, who, however, had little to worry about. Arsenal had offered next to nothing in the previous 90 minutes and injury time brought no sudden change and Forest stuck to the result, which caused great cheers in Nottingham and Manchester.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/nottingham-forest-vs-arsenal-result-man-city-premier-league-title-b1082561.html Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal: Taiwo Awoniyi seals Premier League safety and confirms Man City champions
