Arsenal player ratings vs Nottingham Forest: Surprise star delivers again but fringe player scores 3/10

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Cite

Verri, M. (2026, October 18). Arsenal player ratings vs Nottingham Forest: Surprise star delivers again but fringe player scores 3/10. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-fc-player-ratings-nottm-forest-madueke-gabriel-eze-b1301356.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-10-18 · by Matt Verri

Quick Summary

Arsenal played Nottingham Forest to a dull match with few chances until Noni Madueke scored the winning goal in the 80th minute, securing Arsenal’s position within three points of Manchester City at the top of the table. The article provides player ratings from Matt Verri, highlighting David Raya's confident performance and Ezri Konsa's defensive strength, while criticizing Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz for their lackluster contributions.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-18, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

### Summary and Analysis of Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest Match

Match Outcome

Key Points

### Conclusion

The 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest was a testament to Arsenal's resilience and ability to win even when playing suboptimally. However, it also highlights the need for improvement in maintaining early-game dominance and consistent high-quality play throughout matches. Moving forward, addressing these issues will be crucial as they face tougher challenges both domestically and in European competitions.

Written for “Arsenal Vs Nottingham Forest Match Updates” on 2026-10-18, grounded in this article and the 10 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Arsenal Vs Nottingham Forest Match Updates
Sports · 11 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Al Jazeera
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 11% hedged 4 of 36 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles describe the match between Nottingham Forest and Arsenal on October 18, indicating they are reporting on the same specific football game.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 8 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles discuss the same football match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest on October 18, 2026.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 20% hedged 2 of 10 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles discuss Arsenal's match against Nottingham Forest on the same day, with Article A predicting and discussing team news prior to the match, while Article B provides player ratings after the match.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 3 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe the same football match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest on October 18, 2026, with Noni Madueke scoring the winning goal.”
Al Jazeera
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 1 of 17 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles describe Arsenal's 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on the same date, with Noni Madueke scoring the only goal in the 80th minute.”
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 4% hedged 1 of 24 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles describe player ratings for the same Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest match, mentioning the same late goal by Madueke and similar details about the game.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 5 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles refer to Arsenal's match against Nottingham Forest on the same day, detailing team news and player performance respectively.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 24 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe Arsenal's match against Nottingham Forest on October 18, 2026, which ended with a 1-0 win for Arsenal.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
67/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
11
Sports
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-18 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 5814 article(s) · 46 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 46 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Matt Verri
86 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Got Williams booked early on but then did not do enough to test him.
🔮 It had not cost them this week, when three slow starts have still delivered three wins, but it will catch up with them.
🔮 Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed after the match that Saka had been dealing with a minor illness issue, but he is expected to be ready to start against Forest in the Premier League.
🔮 "For example, after the game with Lille, he came in and he’d made a massive impact and you could see straight away what he did on the pitch.
🔮 Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed after the match that Saka had been dealing with a minor illness issue, but he is expected to be ready to start against Forest in the Premier League.
🔮 However, when it was put to him that those performances could be due to a lack of rhythm after limited minutes this season, Arteta was firm in his response.
🔮 Hincapie was expected to be out for "weeks", ruling him out of upcoming matches against Forest and Bayern Munich.
🔮 Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed after the match that Saka had been dealing with a minor illness issue, but he is expected to be ready to start against Forest on Sunday.
🔮 " That was a particularly significant red card as it means Olise will not be available for Bayern's next Champions League match against Arsenal.
🔮 "I think it will be a matter of weeks but we don't know exactly how many."
Also by Matt Verri
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 86 articles by Matt Verri →

Topics

Arsenal Forest Gunners Manchester City

Subjects

Arsenal ORG · 6× Forest ORG · 3× Delap PERSON · 2× Havertz PERSON · 2× Madueke PERSON · 2× Rice PERSON · 2× Gunners ORG · 1× Manchester City ORG · 1× Matt Verri PERSON · 1× Matz Sels PERSON · 1×

Narrative

It was a largely turgid encounter lacking in any attacking quality or excitement from both sides, with Arsenal having to wait until the 80th minute for their first shot on target.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-18
🔮 Got Williams booked early on but then did not do enough to test him.

Claims (20 extracted, 0 hedged)

It was a largely turgid encounter lacking in any attacking quality or excitement from both sides, with Arsenal having to wait until the 80th minute for their first shot on target. asserted
Arsenal → lack → target
That came via what proved to be the winner, as Madueke cut inside and beat Matz Sels to move the Gunners back to within three points of Manchester City at the top of the table. asserted
Madueke → come → table
Matt Verri rated the Arsenal players at the City Ground... asserted
Verri → rat → Ground
David Raya 7 Confidently dealt with every corner or cross that Forest swung into the box. asserted
Forest → deal → box
Ben White 5 Uncharacteristically loose when he got into dangerous positions in the final third, shanking one cross straight out. asserted
he → get → cross
Solid defensively but the usual combinations with Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard were nowhere to be seen. asserted
combinations → see → Saka
Made six clearances - no other Arsenal player made more than one. asserted
player → make → one
Riccardo Calafiori 5 No influence in attack and his sloppy pass in the first half led to a threatening Forest counter. asserted
pass → lead → counter
Relationship with either Eze or Madueke on the left does not look particularly natural. asserted
Relationship → look → left
Declan Rice 7 Created the best early chance with a great cross for Havertz, though it was a really poor effort when blazing over on 70 minutes. asserted
it → create → minutes
However, he still offered real bite in midfield, winning eight of his ten duels. asserted
he → offer → duels
Intent to play forward was there but did not really come off. asserted
Intent → play → ?
Got Williams booked early on but then did not do enough to test him. asserted
Williams → get → him
His delivery was good, on the whole, including from corners, but from open play the threat was lacking. asserted
threat → include → play
Read More Martin Odegaard 6 Frustrating how often he dropped deep. asserted
he → read → Odegaard
Added to the slow, safe nature of Arsenal’s build-up, though he wasn’t helped by a lack of movement. asserted
he → add → movement
Moment of magic to open up Forest defence was wasted by Rice. asserted
Moment → open → Rice
Lacked intensity with everything he did and kept making basic errors on the ball. asserted
he → lack → ball
Kai Havertz 4 Bad miss when the one first-half chance did come, heading wide from a free-kick. asserted
chance → come → kick
He was a nuisance for the Forest defenders, making runs in behind and holding the ball up. asserted
He → make → ball
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