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[Player Ratings] Forest 4-2 Arsenal: Mertesacker/Walcott woeful, Nelson bright

By on January 7, 2018

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There was more penalty controversy involving Arsenal as we crashed out of the FA Cup with a 4-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

Forest went ahead thanks to some shocking Arsenal defending from a free-kick before we levelled things up through a close-range Mertesacker strike.

The hosts restored their lead before half-time with a stunning volley before Holding gave away a stupid penalty which was converted for 3-1 in the 64th minute.

Welbeck pulled one back to make it 3-2 before referee Jon Moss gifted Forest another penalty despite Debuchy winning the ball with his tackle on Traore. To make matters worse, the penalty shouldn’t have counted as Dowell slipped and kicked it against his standing foot ut the officials didn’t spot the double touch.

Here are my ratings:

Ospina  6.5/10 | Made a couple of fine saves in the first half but was poor for the first goal and got nowhere near the penalty.

Debuchy  5/10 | Unlucky to give away the penalty but was dragged all over by the Forest attack the place at times.

Mertesacker  3/10 | Absolutely woeful. Was given a torrid time by the teenage Forest striker. He’s finished at the top level. Should have retired last summer.

Holding  5/10 | Clumsy challenge to give away the penalty but I felt a little sorry for him as he was doing the work of two centre-backs covering Mertesacker.

Willock  5/10 | A few nice touches and kept the ball moving well but subbed early in the second half.

Elneny  4/10 | Anonymous. Honestly I forgot he was playing at times. Offers nothing to the team and barely protected the back four.

Maitland-Niles  6/10 | Another decent display from the youngster. Still want to see him in central midfield though.

Nelson  6/10 | An impressive first half as he was lively and looking to make things happen. Faded as the game went on.

Iwobi  4/10 | Another opportunity to impress and once again Iwobi failed to deliver. Never going to be good enough IMO.

Walcott  4/10 | Took a couple of decent set pieces but overall he was shocking. Clearly needs to leave in search of a fresh start.

Welbeck  5/10 | Did very little until scoring his goal. Disappointing performance as this was a great opportunity for Welbeck to stake his claim for the first team.

Subs:

Nketiah  5/10 | No heroics this time as he missed a couple of great chances to score.

More poor decisions went against us today but we can’t blame the ref’s as we were dire throughout the game and didn’t deserve anything. Next up, away to Chelsea on Wednesday for the first leg of our Carabao Cup semi-final…