841 Unexpected Advantage (1/2)

”Arsenal is in trouble,” the commentator said, ”It doesn't seem like they ever expected Nottingham Forest to suddenly attack in full force in their home ground…”

The Arsenal fans in the stands kept booing to disrupt the Forest team.

From the situation on the field, Arsenal was indeed in trouble…

Just like what Twain said, Wenger did not expect that Forest would dare go against their normal behavior and attack in Arsenal's home ground at all.

In the first five minutes of the match, Nottingham Forest had already threatened Almunia's goal twice.

This caused Arsenal to be a little flustered, and their defense was full of mistakes.

Nottingham Forest firmly held on to the initiative of the match.

When the ball was under their control, Arsenal could only keep running, tiring themselves out. As they were not prepared for Nottingham Forest's attack, they did not even know what to do. Some of them wanted to follow Wenger's pre-match tactics and continue to attack, others felt that the situation was critical and they should defend before counter attacking.

With differing opinions, they were not able to work well together. When they could not work well together, there would be loopholes for the opponents to take advantage of.

Twain could see the gap between Arsenal's front and back lines very clearly on the side. This was a massive opportunity for Forest to score…

He turned to look at Wenger on the manager's seat. The Frenchman had no expression on his face, and he did not seem to have any intention to make any adjustment. Maybe he believed in his team? Maybe he was unable to understand Nottingham Forest's intentions yet and did not dare to make any rash decisions?

No matter what, he would not be able to change anything no matter how much he thought about it. The matter of fact was Nottingham Forest had the advantage then.

Making use of the advantage that they got hold of in the opening five minutes, Nottingham Forest successfully turned an away game into a home game.

Next, they continued to launch their attacks deep into Arsenal's territory. This was not a simple siege — In fact, a siege of the Arsenal's goal was not what Twain hoped to see. Arsenal also launched attacks of their own and a good amount of them too. Forest controlled the game to create a situation where there were attacks from both sides, allowing them to have more chances of attacking. If their opponent did not come out of their own third, how could they attack?

Arsenal had no choice but to work hard to try and grab the control of the game back. That was why they had to attack instead of just defending. After about ten minutes of panic, there was a unified thought within Arsenal internally — attack!

That was what the Forest team wanted to see the most, Arsenal attacking along with them.

An intense attacking game started…

”Fàbregas! Beautiful pass, Vela receives the ball, shoot! Ah, what a pity!”

Akinfeev caught the ball tightly. He did not wait for the Arsenal players to go back into their defensive positions as he threw the ball back into play to launch their own attack. Gago got the ball and dribbled with it. After Wilshere came out to stop him, he did not stop to turn and try to dribble pass him, instead, he passed the ball directly to Cohen at the flank.

Cohen, who was playing in this game in place of Fernández, was a better crosser of the ball than the Chilean. Twain let him start because of this. This was because the starting forwards for Forest in this game are Ibišević and Mitchell, both good headers of the ball.

However, Cohen was not great at dribbling and the Arsenal's full-back, Sagna, was quick to retreat. Therefore, Cohen changed the play directly from one flank to the other with a long pass to Bentley. Bentley received the ball and passed it to the middle where Gago was already approaching.

After receiving the ball, Gago passed the ball forward and it rolled into the penalty area!

Mitchell appeared from behind the everybody and just when he was about to receive the ball and form an one-on-one with the keeper, the ball was intercepted by the onrushing Almunia. Michell was a little unhappy to see the ball fly over his head, if only he was a little faster…

Almunia waited for Mitchell to get out of the penalty area before kicking the ball forward. Wood's advantage in the air was obvious. There was no one in the Arsenal's midfield who could compete with him for aerial balls.

Wood headed the ball in the air easily as he passed it to Pepe behind.

After witnessing this situation, Fàbregas made a sign with his hand to Almunia at the back, informing him to try throwing the ball out instead of pumping the ball forward so that they can build their attacks from the back.

Starting the play like this was akin to giving possession back to Forest.

Even though the ball was intercepted by Forest, Arsenal did not give up on attacking this time. They actively tackled and fought for the ball and successfully got it back from under Gago's feet, starting their attack right then.

Wilshere dribbled pass Woodgate using his technique before feinting to shoot and passing the ball to Fàbregas coming from behind instead.

Under pressure from Nottingham Forest's captain, the Arsenal captain took a shot but the ball flew just over the crossbar, giving the Nottingham Forest fans a scare.

Fàbregas was a little upset with this miss. He stood up and gave a clap out of annoyance.

Twain looked down at his watch, the match had started for 15 minutes. Forest had not scored yet, but on overall, they had the advantage. The Arsenal attack felt a bit messy under the strength of Forest, depending more on the individual brilliances of their stars. The main reason why Arsenal was at a disadvantage was because Wenger did not even play with any defensive midfielders in his attempt to attack Forest on their home ground, he picked an all attacking midfield. As a result, their midfield was being overrun by Forest's midfield.

They still had to score as early as possible, otherwise this tactic of theirs would not be able to work if Wenger came around…

Furthermore, the fitness of the team was indeed a problem, they could not afford to drag the game.

Twain stood up from his seat and walked to the sideline. He did not say anything, but he believed his players understood what he meant by standing on the sideline.

We need to score, guys. What are you doing?

Arsenal was still working hard to regain control of the game. They were neglecting their defense a little, or more like they placed too much focus on attack. Wenger told them before the game that they had to score in this match. Scoring was the key. That was why the thought of scoring was ringing in their minds…

As for defense?

Even though they knew that their defense was in danger in the face of the Forest attack, all of them had a feeling of luck in their minds, thinking that they would be able to break through the Forest defense first before they concede.

This was simply a game to see who would score first. If Arsenal scored first, the game would be following Arsenal's game plan. If Nottingham Forest scored first, Arsenal would not have the initiative.

That was why they kept thinking about scoring, so much so that they placed their defense as second priority instead…