Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told his players to “step up” after they fell 13 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool with a 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest.
Arteta said ahead of kick off that his side would concede the title “over my dead body” but saw them fail to score for the second time in four days.
The toothless Gunners, playing without a recognised striker, managed just one shot on target at the City Ground, with Riccardo Calafiori also hitting the post in the first half.
Arteta said: “We are very disappointed not to win it. Today the standards were very different to the previous game. The energy, the willingness to make things happen. We certainly tried many different ways.
“It’s about what we can do. It was like this a week before, two weeks before, three months ago. It’s the same.
Arsenal drop points 👎
Liverpool take full advantage 💪The gap between the pair is extended to 13 points ↔️ pic.twitter.com/nIBscFZRP2
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 26, 2025
“That’s the only thing we can control. We’re going to have a real chance to do anything. Today we dropped two points which is very painful again and we have to step up.
“We have the Champions League, we have a beautiful competition in front of us and we need to be ready for Tuesday.”
Arsenal play PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 of the Champions League and will again be without forwards Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz.
“We try and adapt to the qualities they have, how we can help the team to create different things, to have threats from different qualities,” Arteta said.
“It’s a lot to play for and we need to find a solution to unlock it.”
Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo said the result meant they were “finding themselves as a team again.”
“The most important thing was to realise how we do things, how we play and our strengths. Today it was there,” he said.
“We were compact and didn’t allow Arsenal too much. Arsenal had chances, of course, because they are a very good team. But at the same time, we were compact, solid and aggressive.
“Maybe we could have found better transition points but it is always difficult. The positive is the clean sheet and, more than anything, finding ourselves as a team again with the way we do things.
“In the last moments of the game, we were the team getting the set-pieces and the dangerous momentum. That is a positive, also.”