Arsenal were held to a dull draw at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night, but there were some green shoots for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The Gunners struggled again to find promising openings, with their makeshift forward-line not possessing the offensive flair or guile to cut open a resolute Forest defence.
Arteta was forced to call upon Kieran Tierney, while Raheem Sterling produced another poor cameo off the bench, with these substitutions reflecting the dire state of the Arsenal boss’ squad.
However, the Spaniard may have accidentally unearthed a promising forward option against the East Midlanders.
Riccardo Calafiori impressed up front for Arsenal v Forest
Arsenal fans were left ‘baffled’ by Arteta’s seemingly bizarre ploy in the first half of the clash in Nottingham.
Riccardo Calafiori was regularly taking up positions centrally in the box, almost acting as an auxiliary striker as Mikel Merino dropped deeper to collect the ball.
The Italian almost gave Arsenal the lead in the 24th minute, turning his man inside the box and unleashing an exceptional effort on his weaker right foot that crashed the post.
The moment demonstrated what the left-back is capable of when in the opposition box, with his unpredictability, quick feet and powerful ball-striking all useful assets that are missing in the rest of the Arsenal team.
Booked after just three minutes for cynically fouling Calum Hudson-Odoi, Calafiori looked more vulnerable defensively than he did when he was tasked with taking the initiative for Arsenal in the final third.
Arteta felt Calafiori had to come off at half-time to protect the defender from being sent off, but this would’ve merely been a cautionary substitution with Arsenal’s red card fortunes in mind, and wouldn’t have been based on what the former Bologna man was bringing to the team.
Riccardo Calafiori should start as a forward for Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven
Arsenal travel to the Netherlands next week and Arteta should be pondering deploying Calafiori as a forward in some capacity in that game.
While it remains to be seen how he’d deal with playing directly as a striker, rather than wondering into those areas, the bleakness of Arsenal’s attack in recent games warrants trialling something exotic.
The Gunners accumulated just 0.99 expected goals against Forest, taking just 13 shots.
However, they did look threatening in the rare moments Calafiori popped up inside the home team’s box, looking to cause havoc.
It’s worth utilising some of the Italy international’s skills further up the pitch, either in place of Merino as a striker or out wide as a winger, with Leandro Trossard moving centrally.
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