A bemused Nuno broke down his tactics for Arsenal legend Martin Keown following the 0-0 draw on Wednesday.

Arsenal legend Martin Keown was given a schoolboy football lesson from Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo following the 0-0 draw between the two sides on Thursday night.

Gunners manager Mikel Arteta has insisted that his side will give up on the title race over his ‘dead body’ but dropped points at The City Ground, combined with a Liverpool win against Newcastle United, has seen a 15 point gap open up between first and second.

When interviewing Nuno on TNT Sports after the match, Keown questioned why Nottingham Forest changed formation against Arsenal. The former defender appeared to suggest that Forest may have made changes to navigate potential Arsenal midfield dominance. He said: “You've played recently, the 7-0 against Brighton, you played with a five that day. Today I wondered, okay, would you go with it? But you went with a four. What was the reason for that? Did you need more bodies in the midfield area?”

Nottingham Forest not threatened by Arsenal attack

Nuno took a second to understand the question and gave a very levelled response back. He said: “As Arsenal doesn't have a striker, Merino is playing that position. There's no need for an extra body. The overload will be in the midfield so it drops the ball containing the midfield.”

With Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz injured, Arteta has been forced to deploy midfielder Mikel Merino through the middle. The Spaniard, who signed from Real Sociedad for £31.6 million last summer, bagged a brace against Leicester City earlier this month but has not looked so potent against West Ham and Nottingham Forest.

Nuno’s comments appeared to be a subtle dig at Merino and the Gunners’ lack of threat in front of goal - but that won’t surprise Arteta and his men. Speaking after the match, The Arsenal boss said: “Very disappointing not to win it. Today, the standards were very different to the previous game; the energy, the willingness to make things happened.

“We certainly tried many different ways, we dominated the game apart from one spell in the second half after one or two direct free-kicks where they had something in the box and one or two giveaways that allowed them to run, apart from that nothing. With the amount of situations we generated, with the moments we opened them up, we lacked the final pass, the quality on that delivery and certainly more shots on target to actually win it and be more efficient.

Mikel Arteta aware Arsenal ‘lacking piece’ of puzzle

“We tried and adapting the quality that we have, how we can help the team to create different things, to have threats from different qualities, probably they are not about arriving in the box and creating some magic moments, they are other kind of players. Try to adapt to that and do the best that we can.”

When quizzed about the goalscoring situation at the club, or lack thereof, Arteta added: “We have another day or two now to think before the PSV game, all the options that we have especially against a team that is in a low block. Even if they will arrive, if they will open up, if the opponent will be much better than us then I will probably be in a different state, I know that what’s lacking is that piece up there and I just said, there’s a lot to play for and we need to find the solution to unlock it.”

In other news, Mikel Arteta is hoping for a double injury boost when Arsenal face Fulham this weekend.