Off the pace here. Missing backbone.

We deserve to lose this, can't have any complaints. Terrible.

We had twice the possession, twice the passes, more corners, fewer fouls, yet zero shots on goal.

Why the slow build up? We are losing we should be going at 100 mph.

At least we are losing to the twice European champions.

Really poor display, even with the team we put out. Don't think we've had a shot on goal?

Nope - Not a one.

Absolutely shocking. If we play like this against Liverpool or Spudz we'll be hammered.

I forgot that Forest actually had a goalkeeper on the pitch.

We desperately need Xhaka back for the Tottenham game, but I'm sure we'll pick it up against better opponents.

Poor team display. Surprisingly lacklustre showings from all our young tyros - Saka, Martinelli and Ødegaard.

The way we were playing it could have got down to pens and we probably still wouldn't have had any shots on goal.

However good a pro or passionate he is, Holding is ordinary at best. Today he wasn’t even at his ordinary best.

New
Posted at 19:0619:06
Post update

FT: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal

It is only the second time in the last 26 seasons that Arsenal have been knocked out in the FA Cup third round.

And both of those defeats have come against Nottingham Forest!

I knew this would be a tricky *%^@*** game even before today.
Just horrible horrible game where we didn’t *%^@*** turn up.
Dickheads.
Sort of game if you’re not on it you will *%^@*** get turned over.

Don’t know what to say. Totally deserve that

Our back up is horrible, flat track bullies

I remember someone trying to argue about my comments on Cédric saying he’s a liability and that arteta knew it. Any thoughts now ?

The decision to send ainsley on loan looks insane right now. Ludicrous however I don’t think it’s the end of the world. These guys need to be shipped out. Not good enough. The restructuring needs to continue

If this inadvertently helps us get top 4 I'll take it.

We really only have a good squad of 14-15 players in my opinion. A lot of the back up really not at the level required. In that sense better for us to be out of the cup and save our legs for 4th and league cup semis than plough our way through the cup.

I’ve said many times the drop off from the starting 11 to their replacements is huge.
Gabriel - Holding
Tomiyasu - Cédric
Lacazette - Nketiah
Partey/xhaka - Lokonga/Patino. Don’t want to be too harsh on those because of their age.

If that doesn’t show the hierarchy that we need some investment in midfield and striker this window I don’t know what does.

On the performance yes no complaints. But (as most will suspect) I think we can rightly complain about a clear penalty not given for the shirt pull.

Possibly the worst performance of the season though

Really really hate losing.
Was worried about this game and thought it was a tricky draw.
You can't turn up against a half decent championship side and play as badly as we did.
Saka Martinelli and Ødegaard were off today as was the whole team.
Might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Priority is getting European football for next season.
Well done Forest.

Never mind Nuno. You could have subbed off 4 players by the 33rd minute. Not enough subs allowed

On the plus side, it would’ve been a $@$*#y journey home. Happy to have dodged that.

Midfield 2, full back and up front.

Lose any player in those positions and we are totally *%^@**

Well you can be surprised LTG ; because I cut them apart , gave the Maxply a few practice swings , checked the strings and specifically eyeballed it checking for twist ... it was a straight as a die , paint all in tact , no scraping of the frame .

On to the game ... what an awful match ; toothless performance from Arsenal no -one did themselves any favours . Martinelli ran around like a headless chicken , Nketiah showed why we can let him go , Saka was pretty ineffectual .
Holding marks out of ten ..... I'd give minus 2 he was abysmal gave the ball away everytime he ventured forward .

I kept thinking in the later stages of the second half as we went through our usual casual back / sideways / back pass routine .... if Forest suddenly grab a goal ... it is going to be bloody hard to suddenly find the accelerator and rescue this .

One to forget ........ Quite depressing in a way ; seeing how bad our back up is .

Hopefully we've gotten a bad one out of our systems. Always hate being knocked out of the cup, but this is just not the season for our thin squad to be battling on several fronts, with covid and everything else going on. Need to fight it out in the coming games until we get some players back, with more investment we'll be better equipped next season.

A shocker of a performance, up amongst the worst under Arteta.

As good as we were last week, we were truly pitiful this week. No urgency, no passion, no desire, no movement, no ideas.

Why does it always feel that when we are a late TV game, away from home against an underdog whose crowd and players will be really up for it as it’s their ‘moment’ we always lose? I hate us playing that late Saturday prem kick off time, I can’t recall many of those as home over the years - always away.

Thankfully there are 5-6 players to come back in to the team.

Really shows where the gaps are. In priority order for me
Central midfield
Striker (x2)
Back up right back
Back up CB

This can hopefully be sorted by bringing back Saliba. Agree with the overall assessments, some vital recruitment to be done still.

It feels sad to be out of the FA Cup because realistically its a cup we have half a chance of winning, one of the few trophies we can compete in.

The back up centre backs are fine.

But if you have 2 central midfielders who simply can’t retain the ball those defenders are on a hiding to nothing. Any defender is screwed

It’s hard to read some of this nonsense

What we saw today was that we had no authority in the centre of the park and that Eddie can't play the CF role in the way that Lacazette does.

Our passing out from the defence was abysmal but the movement ahead of the defenders was equally shocking. It was a nothing performance from everyone bar perhaps Leno.

There are no excuses for registering no shots on target against a Championship side. Missing some players is not an excuse.

The tactics were awful. White and Holding looking to play long through balls for the forwards. If you do that, you might as well not have Ødegaard on the pitch. Lokonga is young and far from the finished article but he is a confident player who is comfortable in possession. He needs to he trusted. Give him the ball. He might lose it sometimes but he will also link up effectively with the attackers.

Also, I take no consolation in having fewer fixtures to help us concentrate on the league. We have no European football as it is. So disappointing.

It was abysmal

Nobody apart from the central defenders wanted the ball. Nobody accepted any responsibility

I thought lokonga was *%^@.

Unfortunately. It’s not the end of the world but this was his game to prove himself and he was useless

We go Thursday/Sunday/Thursday/Sunday over the next 2 weeks then we’ve got 18 days off without a game. There’s our proper winter break to rest, but we need to push these next 4 games as hard as we can.

Hi Rich,

18 days off is a double-edged sword, it gives you time to recharge your batteries but at the same time there is a loss of momentum and match sharpness.

Until we play the next 4 games we won’t know if it is a positive or negative. A really bad run and we will need to regroup. Otherwise momentum could be lost.

Completely agree about the fixtures. We haven’t got European games as it is. This defeat, to a side ninth in the Championship, means we now only have one real chance of lifting a trophy this season. Moreover that will require beating Liverpool and probably Chelsea.

I didn’t think Lokonga was that bad. There were worse players today. Yes of course we missed Partey and Xhaka but I’ve seen enough in Lokonga to retain some optimism about his potential.

If we can’t beat Nottingham Forest, who are ninth in the Championship, because the game is after 3.00 pm and on telly, we really are in trouble. No more than a coincidence in my view.