Arsenal draw at Forest in another blow to their slim title hopes

NOTTINGHAM, England : Arsenal’s faint title hopes dimmed even further after they were held to a 0-0 draw by Nottingham Forest despite dominating Wednesday's encounter at the City Ground between the second and third-placed teams in the Premier League.

Arsenal were already 11 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, albeit with a game in hand, before the start of the midweek fixtures and their failure to win on Wednesday leaves their quest looking increasingly unlikely.

Forest remain six points behind Arsenal in third place, keeping up their hopes of Champions League football next season, as they advanced to 48 points although they spent much of the game defending their goal.

They did well to absorb Arsenal’s pressure in the first half, restricting them to no shots on target, although the Gunners were only inches away from opening the scoring in the 24th minute after roving left back Riccardo Calafiori eased past Forest midfielder Nicolas Dominguez with a clever turn and struck the post with a shot.

Calafiori had been booked in the second minute and came close to giving away a penalty, when he appeared to impede Callum Hudson-Odoi’s progress into the Arsenal box in the 22nd minute.

It was no surprise, despite his positive contributions to their attack, that he did not come back out after the break as Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta preferred not to risk going down to 10 men if Calafiori was booked again.

A dip of the shoulder from Ethan Nwaneri near the end of the first half set up a chance at the near post but it was blocked before the Arsenal attacker could get his effort away.

Makeshift forward Mikel Merino’s 53rd minute header from Declan Rice's corner was the visitors’ first effort on target but it was parried by Forest