Arsenal pair Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ben White in FURIOUS row at full-time in their 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest

Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal pair Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ben White for their ‘passion’ after the defenders had a furious row seconds after their 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest. 

Second half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka allowed Arsenal to close the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool to two points but that did not stop Zinchenko and White clashing soon after the final whistle.

The duo supposedly argued over the defensive confusion that allowed Forest substitute Taiwo Awoniyi to pull a goal back late on, ensuring a nervous finish for Arsenal.

‘I love it,’ said Arteta. ‘I like the passion of the players. It’s not enough for them just to win the game. They wanted the clean sheet and they were trying to resolve what happened.’

Arteta also revealed Arsenal had been inspired by their title collapse at Forest last season after the Gunners’ 1-0 defeat at the City Ground in May ensured Manchester City lifted the Premier League trophy.

Ben White clashed with his fellow Gunners defender over the late goal that was conceded

‘We wanted to put right what happened last year and generate some momentum in the league – we’ve got that,’ Arteta said. ‘The players were talking about last year’s game when they walked into the dressing room.

‘We are very happy with the performance and the result. We made chances in various ways and showed a lot of maturity to deal with the game as we had to.’

Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo was frustrated with the way his team conceded both goals, even though he was happy with how they kept Arsenal at bay in the first half.

Midway through the second period goalkeeper Matt Turner somehow allowed Jesus’s cross-shot to slip through his legs after Danilo had switched off at a throw-in – another costly error from the former Arsenal man this season. 

Footage shows the players being separated from each other on the pitch at full-time

Then a rapid counter-attack ended with Saka scoring number two.

Nuno said: ‘In the first half defended well but we should have had more possession and that was a negative. In the second half we were better in that respect.

‘We were disappointing on both goals. We could have done better on both situations – a throw-in and then from our corner. After we scored we had a good spell but we should have played better.’