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Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions after Arsenal lost and Forest secured their top-flight place

 Updated 
Sat 20 May 2023 15.01 EDTFirst published on Sat 20 May 2023 11.30 EDT
Taiwo Awoniyi dinks the ball over Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale to give Nottingham Forest the lead.
Taiwo Awoniyi dinks the ball over Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale to give Nottingham Forest the lead. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Taiwo Awoniyi dinks the ball over Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale to give Nottingham Forest the lead. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

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The City Ground, which usually resounds to Mull Of Kintyre, is now belting out Don’t You Want Me. When push came to shove, Forest somehow picked up ten points from their last five games. In the same period, starting with their visit to the Etihad on 26 April, Arsenal have collected six points from five matches (including a very good win at Newcastle).

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Ian Little is back for more, expanding on his point about Saka and White. “We all love Saka, but he plays a lot and he’d run out of steam. It was a bit odd to see Arteta trying that overload [Saka and Partey, I presume] for so much of the game. There was no connection and no outlet.

“Happy for NF, though. Like Cooper and was glad to see the Greek stick with him. The silver lining in this petering out is that there is something from which to build.”

Today in brief. Forest sealed their survival, Arsenal completed their week from hell, City became champions without playing, Liverpool scraped a late equaliser, Man U won at Bournemouth, Spurs lost to Brentford, and Everton grabbed a late point at Wolves. Relegation is now a three-horse race for two places: Leeds and Leicester on the brink, Everton still in danger.

A 'Premier League Champions' banner is revealed outside the Etihad stadium after Manchester City were confirmed as 2022/23 Premier League champions after Nottingham Forest beat Arsenal. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
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The crowd is a sea of bare arms. “It’s the best crowd in the league,” says Morgan Gibbs-White. “The best fans by a country mile.”

Nottingham Forest fans celebrate staying in the Premier League. Photograph: Joe Toth/Colorsport/Shutterstock
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The cameras are following Forest’s delight, so I can’t tell you what the Arsenal players are up to. They’ve had their best season for years, by far, and it has still fizzled out into disappointment. But they’re young and gifted and they’ll surely be back.

“As an Arsenal fan,” says Kári Tulinius, “I’d like to congratulate Forest on probably doing enough to stay up, and thank you for finally putting me out of my misery.”

Steve Cooper is embracing his players one by one. And there are a lot of them: 33 used since Forest were promoted in the summer. He built one team last year, another this year, and both have surpassed themselves.

Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper celebrates. Photograph: Ryan Browne/Shutterstock
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90+5 min Forest have a goal kick and manage to waste some time. They’ve done so well today, they don’t need to stoop to a sad little ploy.

90+4 min Steve Cooper, who has been in a T-shirt throughout, holds up three fingers, one for each remaining minute.

90 min Gibbs-White goes on a glorious solo run that is missing only a goal at the end of it – his shot goes straight at Ramsdale. Seven minutes added! There’s still time…

87 min Saka wriggles into the box and goes down – too easily, in Anthony Taylor’s view.

“I figured you might want to know,” says Kári Tulinius, “that your commentary just got cited on-air by the excellent Finnish commentator Mikko Innanen, as to Tony Adams’ desire to get Smith-Rowe on the field.” Fame at last! But Tony is still waiting for that substitution, which shows how far Smith-Rowe’s stock has fallen.

85 min Vieira takes his cue from Tierney, slips down the left wing and floats in a testing cross, but Naylor just manages to reach up into he sunlight and grab it.

Nottingham Forest’s Keylor Navas (center left) catches the ball ahead of Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP
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83 min Tierney, still flying down the left, thinks he’s won a corner, but the officials don’t agree. Alas, poor Arsenal: so good for so long this season, and so disappointing when it came to the crunch.

80 min Arsenal’s turn to concoct a counter, but the ref gets in the way and has to blow his whistle. That rather sums up their day.

“Arteta has copped very little criticism this season for obvious reasons,” says Chris Lambert, “but compare not changing the system vs Sporting Lisbon with changing it now vs Forest. Mad decisions.”

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77 min Taiwo Awoniyi goes off to a warm ovation. He and Gibbs-White have done more than anyone to keep Forest up.

“To add to Peter Oh’s philosophical riddle,” says Justin Kavanagh, “I think the other big question about Arsenal’s season concern’s Jesus’s injury at the World Cup and it is this: What’s the sound of one knee snapping?”

77 min Arsenal keep getting the ball into Jesus, but he his being policed very strictly by the Forest centre-backs, who have been immense.

Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus (centre) attempts to get the better of Forest's centre back Felipe. Photograph: Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images

“Not a hope in Hades,” says Michael Coppejans. “‘You can’t win anything with kids.’ Arsenal showing their age! Honestly though, what chance does any team have against the non-abiding FFP behemoth that is Pep’s City? Unlimited resources combined with his brilliance? Klopp and LFC have pushed and only succeeded once. Dark times ahead as City will surely get the treble this year.”

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74 min The one sub who has had some influence so far is Tierney, now getting down the left wing in a way Arteta’s preferred left-back, Kiwior, did not. I was wrong, by the way, to say that Jorginho had gone off – it was Kiwior, which made more sense.

72 min Gibbs-White is back on his feet and able to take part in Forest’s next counter, which culminates in Lodi shooting wide.

Forest sub: Danilo off, after taking a knock; Kouyate on.

69 min Jorginho shoots from distance, just over. Gibbs-White was already down after a collision and he has stayed down – I hope he’s OK.

Arteta takes the opportunity to send on a third sub. Trossard’s attempt to be Luka Modric is short-lived as Fabio Vieira comes on to replace him.

67 min Half-chance! An overhit back-pass from Gabriel sends Gibbs-White though, but the angle is too tight and his shot ends up in the side netting.

65 min After starting with three holding midfielders, Arsenal have only one left – Partey – and he’s still at right-back. The pivot appears to consist of Trossard and nobody else. In the immortal words of Prince: “Too funky!”.

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59 min Forest lump the ball forward and Awoniyi gets into a tussle with Gabriel. It’s amazing how little is happening.

“White has been Arsenal’s best player,” says Ian Little, presumably referring to the past few weeks rather than this match. “Saka has been average for many games now.” Well, he’s been the brightest spark tonight, as he shows again now by getting in behind and hitting a right-foot shot, which Navas palms away.

53 min A caption informs us that the PL team most likely to lose after leading at half-time this season are … Forest, who have done it three times, the same as Bournemouth. Southampton and Spurs are on two. The opposite table, of teams most likely to come back from behind, is headed by Arsenal, also on three, also level with Bournemouth.

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51 min Arsenal have another spell of patient possession. This is like watching them in the last days of Wenger.

A question comes in from Peter Oh. “If a title tilt falls in the Forest and no one is there to hear it, did it actually make a sound?” Ha.

46 min Arsenal kick off, move forward, get stuck in the crowded middle of the Forest defence. Forest break, Awoniyi holds it up well, and Arsenal concede a free kick 30 yards out.

Tony Adams is asked what he would do. “Let’s get Emile on,” he says. “He can open doors.” He can, but he hasn’t been in the groove this season.

The replays show that the goal was rough luck on Gabriel. He made a fine sliding tackle as Awoniyi bore down on Ramsdale, and the goal wasn’t even a shot – the ball just bounced straight back off Awoniyi. Fortune favours the big and strong.

“I don’t know about the East Midlands erupting,” says Adam Roberts. “I doubt there was much cheering in Leicester. Or Derby for that matter.” It’s a fair cop.

HALF-TIME Forest 1-0 Arsenal

Well, well. Forest hang onto the lead that was handed to them on a plate by a howler from Martin Odegaard and then delivered to the table by the rapport between Taiwo Awoniyi and Morgan Gibbs-White. Arsenal carry on having the week from hell: no goals scored, four conceded. Saka has been their best player, as so often. Arteta, once he’s vented huis frustration, surely has to change the shape back to something that makes his team feel comfortable.

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45+4 min Saka wins a corner and takes it. Again it’s sent to Trossard for the volley, but again he doesn’t get hold of it.

45+3 min Arsenal pass it around sideways, as if they don’t really mind if Arteta gives them a bollocking. Saka is doing his best but he would be finding it a lot easier if he had White, not Partey, as his wingman.

45+2 min Niakhate’s latest long throw comes to nothing much. His next one gets him a yellow card for time-wasting, which would be fair if White had got one earlier.

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43 min Partey makes a sortie! And gets a decent cross in, but there’s no black shirt on the end of it.

40 min Arsenal’s best bet is that Forest will get exhausted from chasing shadows in the evening sunshine. The problem is that Forest have a source of free energy: the crowd. They’re having so much fun.

37 min So far, Arteta’s tinkering hasn’t worked at all, but he hasn’t changed course yet and presumably won’t till half-time at the earliest.

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