Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal: Gunners suffer another blow to their fading title hopes as they fail to score again in frustrating draw

When he was asked earlier this week whether he was ready to concede the title to Liverpool now that they had moved 11 points clear of his Arsenal team, Mikel Arteta had been adamant. ‘Over my dead body,’ he said.

His defiance was admirable. His defiance was to be expected, too, but after this bore draw with Nottingham Forest by the River Trent, he might want to stop talking about corpses before someone points out Arsenal’s title challenge is starting to resemble football's version of one. Their hopes of the title have now expired.

Arsenal are ex-contenders. It’s practically official now. It was over when Arsenal lost at home to West Ham on Saturday and Liverpool beat Manchester City the next day but this dreary display against a team six points behind them in third place underlined Arsenal’s capitulation.

They are a side that has become adept at blinking first. Close but no cigar. That might as well be their motto. Except this season, it seems they are not even going to be close. In the clutch, they have been found wanting again.

They were toothless in attack. Their display never looked like matching their manager’s defiant words. Undone by the club’s poor recruitment, they have been unable to overcome the absences of Bukayo Saka and, latterly, Kai Havertz. Being left without a single striker looks like rank carelessness for any side with real pretensions to be winners.

Liverpool’s match with Newcastle started later than Arsenal’s clash with Forest at the City ground but it soon became clear that the 11-point deficit Arsenal faced to Arne Slot’s side at the start of the evening was going to get even wider by the end of it.

Mikel Merino was unable to find the breakthrough as he led the line for Arsenal once more

It was another frustrating evening for Martin Odegaard as he failed to inspire Arsenal to victory

Mikel Arteta said before the game he was not giving up on the title, but Arsenal's chances of winning the league appear to be all over

Both Arteta’s team and Forest, who had lost their last two games against Fulham and Newcastle, played like sides who knew the game was already up and were indulging in a kind of damage limitation. Their only battle now is the battle for second place. Both these teams look like they have run out of steam. It might be time to start looking over their shoulders.

The early stages brought Arsenal a hint of satisfaction. One of their long-hold grudges is that their players have been treated more harshly than others for delaying restarts. Four minutes in, Nikola Milenkovic danced in front of Gabriel as he tried to take a free kick and when the ball hit him, referee Andrew Madley booked him. Some consistency at last.

Aside from some typically inventive, clever play from Morgan Gibbs-White, who will surely be in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad when it is announced next month, the match had little to recommend it until midway through the first half.

Forest appealed for a penalty when Callum Hudson-Odoi wriggled away from Riccardo Calafiori and then tumbled under his challenge but when that was waved away, Calafiori went down to the other end, turned away from Nicolas Dominguez and curled a right-foot shot on to the face of the post.

That was the end of the goalmouth excitement in the opening 45 minutes. Ethan Nwaneri was still wonderful to watch but Arsenal looked what they are: a team without a striker. At the other end, Chris Wood spent a lot of his time in Gabriel’s pocket. It was a game very much in need of a spark.

Makeshift Arsenal forward Mikel Merino nearly provided it five minutes after the break when he rose at the back post to power a Declan Rice corner goalwards but it was palmed to safety by Matz Sels.

But then the second half began to follow the same pattern as the first. It was a war of attrition. A lot of earnest endeavour largely unleavened by inspiration. The only contentment to be had was in glimpses of the player Nwaneri will soon become.

Arteta had his moments on the bench but even he was more subdued than usual. In the middle of one burst of disbelief at a referee’s decision, he even managed to smile at Nuno Espirito Santo.

Wood had a sniff of an opening 20 minutes from the end after another some more superb work from Gibbs-White but he was denied, first by a brilliant saving tackle from William Saliba and then a linesman’s flag.

Riccardo Calafiori hit the post in the first half with a curling effort

He also had to survive a penalty appeal against him and was taken off at half-time

Nuno Espirito Santo's side worked hard for their point as they bounced back from defeat at Newcastle

Merino nearly scored again with another back post header from another Rice corner but there was still little sign of anything at all developing from open play.

Arsenal showed more urgency than their opponents but as the clock ticked down, they did not show any ability to make it count for anything.

There was a rare flurry of excitement seven minutes from time when Merino produced a lovely flick to play in Oleksandr Zinchenko, Zinchenko squared the ball to Martin Odegaard and Odegaard’s goalbound shot was cleared by an acrobatic intervention from Murillo. Then the linesman slowly raised his flag.

It wouldn’t have counted. It was this game all over.