Mikel Arteta hailed the way his Arsenal players managed to ‘suffer’ and break down Nottingham Forest’s defensive ‘Christmas tree’ set-up to earn victory.

Substitute Noni Madueke’s 80th-minute strike sealed the match as Arsenal’s only shot on target, with Arteta’s bench once again coming to the rescue.

The north London club dominated possession with little joy around the penalty area before four second-half changes, including Madueke, helped change the tide.

It’s now six wins from seven in the Premier League for the Gunners who sit in second place, three points behind Manchester City.

Arteta said: ‘We’ve played 11 competitive matches and won 10. So we're going to get a variety of ways to win in many different contexts. We knew today we wouldn't score in the first 20-30 minutes.

’We were going to face a different Forest because they're extremely well covered. They put a Christmas tree (3-4-1-2) there. There's no space to play. You have to be so neat and tidy. You have to otherwise generate a lot of chaos in the box, whether it's in open play or with set-pieces.

’We didn't even hit the target, which is the difference. And the longer the game goes, we say, “OK, now we have to play a different game because the moment we start to ramp up our level of frustration, the game is going to be really dangerous for us because we're going to take more risks than we should”.

‘I had the belief that the moment the physical level was going to drop, the spaces would be a little bit bigger. And the finishing delivered because the game changed and the context of that game changed a little bit. And then we have to suffer because we had two or three actions that were a bit strange to witness.’

On Madueke’s display, he added: ‘There's a smile on my face because he's a special character.

‘He's just a special guy. He's in a good moment. I think after the break he's showing something else, another level of anger, another level of conviction as well in his actions and he's becoming decisive in matches, which is what we expect from a player like him.’

Goalscorer Madueke was effusive about the impact of Arsenal’s ‘absurd’ bench to get the three points.

Madueke said: ‘We had to dig deep, we know it's difficult to come here. Thank God we were able to get the win and we move on with three points.

‘If you look at the quality of our starting XI and bench it's absurd so we know that we're going to start some and finish some and for me it's the same mentality every time. I just want to create or score.

‘Amazing feeling [to score] but I feel better about the win.’