From the vault: Four classic wins at Forest

Tuesday night sees us head to the City Ground when we face Nottingham Forest, and there have been some great games between us and the Reds down the years.

However you have to cast your mind back pretty far for the majority of them, especially when league football is concerned.

To jog your memory of some of our best away days in Nottingham, we’ve picked out four fine performances for you to enjoy all over again:

November 6, 1988
Nottingham Forest 1-4 Arsenal

We moved into second in the First Division table with this win, despite Nigel Clough putting his father’s team in front and Brian Marwood missing a penalty, but Paul Merson and Alan Smith linked up well before the striker produced an improvised finish to draw us level at the break.

Steve Bould then headed us in front with his first goal for the club, before his defensive partner Tony Adams flew in to convert a corner. We then wrapped up the points with a swift counter-attack which saw an excellent Nigel Winterburn pass allow Marwood to scamper forward and round Steve Sutton before slotting home.

September 16, 1989
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Arsenal

Marwood would once again find himself on the scoresheet the following season, but this strike would prove to be more crucial as it was the winner. Things got off to a good start on 15 minutes when Lee Dixon got past Stuart Pearce, and Merson was perfectly placed to tap home after Sutton misjudged the cross.

However just six minutes later Garry Parker found the top corner from range to equalise, and that’s how things stayed until 10 minutes from time when David Rocastle dinked the ball into Smith, and his deflected shot fell kindly for Marwood to fire home.

January 16, 1999
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Arsenal

This was the last time we travelled to Nottingham for a league game, which was Ron Atkinson’s first in charge of Forest. However it wasn’t to be a winning start for Big Ron, thanks to an unlikely goalscorer.

The game’s key moment came on 34 minutes when Emmanuel Petit swung in a corner, and Martin Keown met it with a firm downward header which found the net. The defender would have another big say in proceedings when his challenge prevented Pierre van Hooijdonk from tucking away an Andy Johnson shot that struck the post, with his heroics at both ends ensuring we left victorious.

September 20, 2016
Nottingham Forest 0-4 Arsenal

Lucas Perez grabbed his first Gunners goals in this League Cup third-round tie, which we took control of on 23 minutes when Granit Xhaka let fly for 30 yards and saw a slight deflection deceive Vladimir Stojkovic.

It took us until the hour mark to double our lead when Chuba Akpom was fouled, allowing Perez to fire home a penalty who soon completed his brace when he dribbled around Stojkovic. He then also registered an assist when he picked out Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to complete the rout in stoppage-time.