Madueke finally breaks the City Ground curse

Arsenal arrived at the City Ground carrying a specific kind of hex: their previous two visits there had both finished goalless, the sort of stat that gets wheeled out before kick-off and then, usually, proven right again. Not this time. Madueke's goal was the one that mattered, turning a ground that had swallowed Arsenal's last two visits into three points instead.

A drought that continues

For Forest, the bigger story might be their own. According to The Guardian, Glasner's side had not scored at home in some time before Arsenal arrived, a run that was already becoming a live issue around the City Ground. Madueke's finish beat Forest again, and Glasner's home side still haven't scored at the City Ground this season. that's the version of this result Glasner will be picking through.

Madueke's night

Madueke has had a slow start to this Premier League campaign by his own standards, with 113 minutes played so far this term and no goals or assists before this one, though his underlying numbers (0.28 xG, 0.52 xA in that limited time) suggested chances were starting to arrive. Zoom out to last season and the picture is different: Premier League figures have him at 3 goals and 1 assist from 1,205 minutes in 2025/26, and 7 goals and 5 assists the season before that at Chelsea. A breakthrough goal at the City Ground, against a side that has made life hard for visitors there, fits a player who's been waiting for exactly this kind of moment to go his way.

Where this leaves both clubs

Arsenal go into this one sitting second in the Premier League, with 18 points from seven games (six wins, one defeat, a goal difference of +6), the kind of start that makes a stubborn 0-0 run at one away ground look like background noise rather than a crisis. For Mikel Arteta, snapping that particular City Ground hoodoo is a tidy footnote to a season that's otherwise going exactly to plan.

For Glasner, it's the opposite kind of footnote: his side are still searching for a home goal, and Arsenal's visit didn't change that.