GRABBAN GLORY
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MIKEL ARTETA said he was “in pain and hurting” after Nottingham Forest embarrassed Arsenal.
And former Forest midfielder Roy Keane, a pundit at the game, said Arsenal might have looked like Real Madrid because they wore a one-off white strip as part of the ‘no more red’ campaign – but they played like a pub team.
The Gunners failed to work home keeper Brice Samba whatsoever, failing to register a single shot on target.
And super sub Lewis Grabban showed them how it should be done with a late winner to set-up a home tie with holders Leicester.
Arteta said: “This is really hurting. It is a competition that is embedded in our history and to go out of it is a big pain.
“We needed drive and hunger to win at any cost. We needed much more. It is so frustrating but it happened.
“We can talk about all the players we didn’t have but we should have done something different.
“We didn’t have enough incisiveness, determination and purpose to progress the ball with enough quality. And when we had the chances we didn’t hit the target.”
Grabban’s 83rd-minute winner sparked a mini-pitch invasion before Forest held out fairly easily for the win.
Boss Steve Cooper said: “I did feel comfortable.
“Someone asked me it must have been a long eight minutes after we scored? I’ve had longer eight minutes. The players were really engaged with what it took to win.”
Arteta’s decision to make seven changes backfired badly with much-hyped teenager Charlie Patino, 18, underwhelming on his full debut for the Gunners.
While Eddie Nketiah led the line up front, he fluffed some of his side’s rare openings. And that proved
LETTING LEWIS Forest stars and supporters mob Grabban after his late winner
Crystal Palace v Hartlepool Bournemouth v Boreham Wood Huddersfield v Barnsley Peterborough v QPR Cambridge v Luton Southampton v Coventry Chelsea v Plymouth Everton v Brentford Kidderminster v West Ham Man Utd or A Villa v M’boro Tottenham v Brighton Liverpool v Cardiff Stoke v Wigan Nott’m Forest v Leicester Man City v Fulham Wolves v Norwich Ties to be played over the first weekend in February. costly for Arteta, who was also without Covid victims Granit Xhaka and Folarin Balogun and Emile SmithRowe and Takehiro Tomiyasu who were injured.
Angry Arteta even hauled off £8million left-back Nuno Tavares, making his ninth start for the club, in the 35th minute in an embarrassing substitution.
JAMES NURSEY AT THE CITY GROUND
But not even Kieran Tierney, who replaced him, could inspire his side to get the better of Scotland team-mate Scott McKenna and his Forest pals.
Forest appeared fired up from the start as they gave debuts to new signings Keinan Davis and Steve Cook.
Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno kept his side with good saves from Philip Zinckernagel and James Garner, but he was helpless as Grabban poked in his 11th of the season from Ryan Yates’ cross.