£115,000-a-week Nottingham Forest player struggled vs Arsenal, Nuno now has a big conundrum - opinion
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Nottingham Forest lost 3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium as the title-chasing outfit gave the Reds a second successive defeat and a first away from the City Ground.
Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri compounded Forest to a comfortable defeat, with the Gunners hoping to go on a run that will get them back into the title reckoning with Liverpool.
A bad afternoon began when Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson were deemed unfit to be able to take part in the matchday squad. It got even worse at half-time when Anthony Elanga was also forced off through injury.
It wasn’t to be for Forest but ultimately the season won’t be defined by results away at Arsenal and to until the end of November without defeat away from home is hardly a reason to panic.
There were a couple of really disappointing performances, however, with one Forest player in particular now providing Nuno Espirito Santo with a real dilemma going forward.
James Ward-Prowse needs to seriously improve for Forest
Having played just two minutes since getting sent off against Chelsea back in October, it was somewhat surprising to see Ward-Prowse back in the Forest team yesterday.
He lined up in midfield with Ryan Yates and Nicolas Dominguez as Espirito Santo tried to thwart the undoubted three of a three-pronged Arsenal midfield.
There was always going to be an element of match sharpness lacking with Ward-Prowse and that’s what made the decision to start him all the stranger from the Forest head coach.
The statistics do showcase that Ward-Prowse has something to offer with his 92.9% passing accuracy – as confirmed by Who Scored – the highest of any Forest player during his 90 minutes on the pitch.
However, Sofa Score highlights that he gave the ball away six times and made just one tackle throughout the game, with Forest falling to a heavy defeat against Arsenal.
Espirito Santo has conundrum over Ward-Prowse on the horizon
Ultimately, the £115,000-a-week Ward-Prowse will always bring something to the table. His set pieces are typically brilliant and when he’s on the pitch there will always be that degree of threat from those situations.
However, more is required from him at Forest. The Reds can’t afford to have a glorified quarter-back type of player and need more from all of their players when it comes to commitment to the cause.
Ward-Prowse hasn’t played for a bit and perhaps he can be afforded some leniency for some aspects of his performance against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
If Espirito Santo is going to help Ward-Prowse became a success at Forest, he simply has to find a way to deploy him where he can bring more of a threat to the team from open-play situations.
