Mikel Arteta sends message to Arsenal fans and Forest after ticketing issues
Mikel Arteta has apologised to supporters after Arsenal's game against Nottingham Forest was delayed due to ticketing issues.
The Gunners' Premier League opener, which was scheduled to kick off at 12:30pm on Saturday afternoon, was held up for 30 minutes after widespread reports of turnstiles not working. Thousands of fans were left stranded in long queues and waiting outside the Emirates Stadium - before finally being allowed in.
It is thought the problems centred around a newly implemented electronic ticketing system, with fans unable to scan their match tickets. The issue was soon addressed with supporters packing inside the Emirates as Arsenal took to the field for the first time in the Premier League this season.
And after the match, Arteta thanked the officials and Forest who sanctioned the delay. The Arsenal boss said: "Apologise to all of them. We will look at it. Thankyou to the refs and Forest to allow the kick off to be delayed and have the atmosphere that we did."
As for the game itself, the Gunners started slowly but opened the scoring in the 26th minute as Eddie Nketiah slammed the ball beyond Matt Turner via a deflection. That goal sparked Arsenal into life and they doubled their lead just six minutes later through Bukayo Saka, who sublimely curled the ball into the top corner from the edge of the area.
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Mikel Arteta has apologised to supporters after Arsenal's game against Nottingham Forest was delayed (Getty Images)Arsenal had chances to score a third but could not finish off Forest, with Declan Rice hitting the post and missing another opportunity to grab his first Gunners goal. That opened the door for Forest to get back into the game and Steve Cooper's men pulled one back when Anthony Elanga squared across to Taiwo Awoniyi to slot home.
It set up a nervy final 10 minutes but Arsenal held on secure an opening day victory after Manchester City started their campaign off with a resounding 3-0 win over Burnley on Friday. Arteta was pleased with his side's performance and admitted they deserved to win the match.
He added: "Welcome to the Premier League! I think that’s the highlight, we were super dominant, we deserved to win the game, there’s no question that we deserved to win the game.
"But when you are 2-0 up and you have some chances to kill the game we didn’t and then we gave a very sloppy one away after being there and having the corner and having a chance on the corner.
"Straight away from two passes you concede a goal, when that happens in the league it’s game on, every team has the resources, the quality to create issues, and it was more about the feeling of what happened, because the reality is we didn’t concede anything. Running the clock down, in this league, that’s a very dangerous thing to do but overall I'm very happy."
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