In the season following Forest’s second European Cup win, Brian Clough’s men finished trophy-less and lay in seventh position in the League. The hunt for a hat-trick of European titles also fell at the first hurdle. After trailing 0-1 in the first leg against CSKA Sofia, the Bulgarian side doubled their lead inflicting another 0-1 loss on Forest back at the City Ground, with Brian Clough’s side crashing out 0-2 on aggregate. In between those two fixtures, Arsenal bagged both points with a 1-0 win over Forest in late September 1980 with Graham Rix on target for the Gunners. Back at the City Ground the following February however, Forest inflicted a 1-3 defeat on Arsenal.

The following season, Forest finished trophy-less again and slumped to a twelfth place finish. Arsenal completed their first double over Forest in the League for eleven years with a 2-1 win at the City Ground in November 1981 with goals for Alan Sunderland and Brian Talbot, as well as a 2-0 win back at Highbury the following April, with Graham Rix and Brian Talbot on the scoresheet. At the end of the 1981/82 season, Clough’s assistant Peter Taylor announced his retirement. Taylor however would return to Derby County as manager the following November and would even eliminate Forest from the third round of the FA Cup with a 0-2 defeat at the Baseball Ground with a superb free kick goal from Archie Gemmill.

That same year, Clough was to fall out with Taylor over his signing of Forest star John Robertson and the pair never spoke again until Taylor’s death seven years later. In Clough’s first season without Taylor, Forest inflicted a 0-3 defeat on Arsenal at the City Ground in October 1982 with goals for Procter, Birtles and Wallace. Meanwhile, the following March, the two sides played out a 0-0 draw back at Highbury in the return fixture. In his first season since Taylor’s exit from the City Ground, Brian Clough’s side achieved the improved position of fifth. The following season, Nottingham Forest’s visit to White Hart Lane to play Spurs in early October 1983 would break new ground as the first league fixture to be televised in full on ITV’s ‘The Big Match Live’. Spurs inflicted a 1-2 defeat on Forest.

Three weeks later, Forest returned to North London to face Arsenal who ran out 4-1 winners with goals from Colin Hill, Alan Sunderland and two for Tony Woodcock. For Arsenal it would be ten goals in two weeks as the following weekend they hammered Aston Villa 6-2 away. However it turned out to be a false dawn for the Gunners as they went on to lose five of their next six league matches. A run of results which saw manager Terry Neill lose his job by Christmas of 1983. Don Howe’s first visit as Arsenal boss however saw the Gunners leave the City Ground with all three points as a result of a 1-0 win secured by a last minute goal from Paul Mariner (his first for Arsenal) as a result of an error by Forest keeper Hans Van Breukelen who later found fame as part of the famed victorious Dutch side at Euro ‘88.

In 1983/84 Forest returned to European competition, this time turning out in the UEFA Cup. In the third round Brian Clough’s men were drawn against Celtic and played out a 0-0 draw in the first leg at the City Ground, a match which was more notable for a ten minute first half delay due to a crush caused by overcrowding at the Celtic end. Ahead of the second leg back at Celtic Park, Brian Clough prepared his Forest players for the game ahead by actually taking them for a swift half in a pub owned by Celtic manager David Hay (obviously not the Heavyweight Boxer of the same name). it must have done the trick as Forest ran out 2-1 winners on the night with goals from Steve Hodge and Colin Walsh.

After progressing past Austrian side Sturm Graz, Forest went on to meet Belgian side Anderlecht in the hope of setting up an all-English final with Spurs. At the City Ground, two goals from Steve Hodge in the last ten minutes gave Forest a two goal lead to take to Brussels. Forest however crashed to a 0-3 defeat away to Anderlecht – a defeat which has since become a source of controversy ever since, after revelations thirteen years later that Spanish referee Emilio Guruceta Muro was paid £18,000 by Anderlecht president Constant Vanden Stock through a local gangster to fix the result of the second leg tie.

The 1983/84 season brought Forest’s highest finish since their late 1970s heyday. Despite this, during the close season Arsenal were able to poach Viv Anderson – the first Afro-Caribbean player to represent England’s first XI and a mainstay of their defence since the beginning of the Clough era. On Anderson’s return to the City Ground with Arsenal in Late August 1984, the Gunners crashed to a 0-2 defeat to Forest. In early December 1984, Forest came from two goals down to defeat Man Utd 3-2 at the City Ground, with the winner scored by Dutch midfielder Johnny Metgod. The following April, back at Highbury the two sides played out a 1-1 draw with Ian Allinson on the scoresheet for the Gunners.

That same season Forest finished a lowly ninth position. They also exited the UEFA Cup in the first round with a 0-1 defeat to Belgian side Bruges. Due to the post-Heysel ban, this was Brian Clough’s final appearance in European football as a manager. In 1985/86, Arsenal visited the City Ground in late October and crashed to a 2-3 defeat in front of just 17,756 fans with Paul Davis and Graham Rix on target for the Gunners. In mid-January, Forest visited Old Trafford to face a Man Utd side who were five points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand. Forest came back from 1-2 down to leave Old Trafford with all three points courtesy of a 3-2 victory and a winning goal from Brian Clough’s nineteen year old son Nigel.

Three months on and Forest would also dent the title hopes of West Ham United with a 2-1 win at the City Ground with an excellent free kick from Forest’s Dutch former Real Madrid star Johnny Metgod. Forest visited Highbury around a week later, this time in front of just 15,098 fans. An Ian Allinson goal secured a point for an Arsenal side with Steve Burtenshaw acting as Caretaker Manager after the resignation of Don Howe, in a 1-1 draw. Five months later, Arsenal visited the City Ground with George Graham at the helm. The new era however started in rather unspectacular fashion for Arsenal with just two wins out of six.

Nottingham Forest in contrast had started the season well, topping the league table with five wins out of seven and scored twelve goals in their previous two games – a 6-0 win over Aston Villa at the City Ground, as well as a 6-2 win over Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge after going 1-2 down. George’s misery would continue after a 0-1 defeat to Forest, though Arsenal’s final defeat of that calendar year and would also embark on a run of thirteen wins out from seventeen games which would propel the Gunners to four points clear at the top of the League by January. By this point, Forest’s title challenge had fell away after a run of six games without a win, meaning that their season relied on their progress in the Cup competitions.

Brian Clough’s men would be drawn away to Arsenal in the Quarter Final of the League Cup. Charlie Nicholas opened the scoring for the Gunners, before John Lukic brought down Johnny Metgod in the box to concede a penalty. Lukic however made amends by saving a penalty from Stuart Pearce. A goal from Martin Hayes sealed Arsenal’s passage through to a famous Semi Final tie with Spurs, with a 2-0 victory. The Gunners progressed past Spurs to meet Liverpool in the Final. While awaiting their first Wembley final in seven years, Arsenal’s league form had collapsed with a run of six games without victory at the Forest returned to Highbury in March. The two sides played out a 0-0 draw which saw the Gunners drop to third place and nine points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Arsenal won the League Cup that year and finished fourth in the League, while Forest finished in eighth position. Both Arsenal and Forest however were predominantly young developing sides and both would show some improvement in 1987/88. The following September, Arsenal left the City Ground with their first win in four years as a goal from new signing Alan Smith gave the Gunners a 1-0 victory. Before the game, Arsenal had managed just one win all season which was a 6-0 thumping of Alan Ball’s newly promoted Portsmouth side and, as with the season prior, this would be the beginning of an impressive run of form for the Gunners with fourteen straight wins in all competitions, before a 0-1 defeat at home to Southampton. There followed just one win in five games before Nottingham Forest visited Highbury on Boxing Day.

Arsenal too were to endure a terrible Christmas as Arsenal fell behind after an error from Arsenal keeper John Lukic left Forest’s Terry Wilson with an open goal to put Brian Clough’s men ahead. The Gunners’ misery was furthered by Kenny Sansom missing a penalty. In the second half, John Lukic brought down Nigel Clough in the box. Stuart Pearce successfully converted to inflict a 2-0 loss on the Gunners. As it turned out, Arsenal failed to win a single game over the Christmas period of 1987 and faced a tricky third round tie in the FA Cup against a Millwall side riding high in the old second division. The Gunners however got their season back on track with a 2-0 victory over George Graham’s former side. The Gunners reached another League Cup Final and were hoping for a dual carriageway to Wembley in the FA Cup before drawing Nottingham Forest at home in the Quarter Finals.

A crowd in excess of 50,000 turned out for the tie, though Arsenal’s chances were dashed after David O’Leary was substituted with an Achilles injury, meaning that Michael Thomas was required to cover at centre half. Forest took the lead with an excellent strike from Paul Wilkinson just minutes before half time. In the second half, Brian Rice doubled Forest’s lead. Arsenal pulled one back with a goal from David Rocastle, the Gunners however were unable to prevent a 1-2 defeat and Brian Clough’s first Semi Final appearance in the FA Cup as either a player or a manager. Brian Clough’s side would be drawn against Liverpool at Hillsborough a month later, but would face the Merseysiders in the League a week prior.

Liverpool were running away with the League at this point having lost only one game all season and in Brian Clough’s post-match interview after defeating Arsenal expressed a view that Forest had a faint chance of catching Liverpool. At the City Ground, Forest pulled off a 2-1 win over the Scousers though would be eliminated from the FA Cup with a 1-2 defeat at Hillsborough. Back at Anfield in the League for their third meeting in eleven days, Liverpool effectively killed off Forest’s faint hopes of a League title challenge with a 0-5 defeat, leaving Brian Clough’s men seventeen points adrift. That season, Brian Clough’s men ultimately had to make to with a third place finish.

Forest however picked up a trophy that season in the form of the oddity that was the Mercantile Credit Football League Centenary Tournament – which took place at Wembley over a weekend. Forest played two forty minute games on the Saturday and a sixty minute Semi Final and Final on Sunday. Forest defeated Sheffield Wednesday in the Final on penalties. Like with the Anglo-Scottish Cup over a decade prior, the ‘mickey-mouse’ tournament would again be the spur for further success. In the meantime, both Arsenal and Forest took part in an end of season Soccer Six tournament down under to celebrate Australia’s bicentennial, alongside Man City and three Australian sides. And according to Perry Groves in his autobiography, both the Arsenal and Forest squads boarded the same planes.

Perry Groves explains that while the plane refuelled at Abu Dhabi, Forest players were ordered off the plane by Brian Clough, but the Arsenal players remained. Perry stated that: ‘I couldn’t be bothered to get off and by then I fancied a little bit of a kip. I’d just got comfortable when I felt a tap on my legs and someone said, ‘young man!’…‘piss off’ I said, eyes closed. ‘Young man, I won’t ask you again… it was Cloughie and you don’t argue with a legend sober or p***ed’. Groves added further that: ‘with all the publicity since about how good it is to keep moving around on long-haul flights to avoid deep vein thrombosis, Cloughie was years ahead of his time’. Down under, Arsenal suffered a 2-3 defeat to Forest.

The following November however, Arsenal visited the City Ground to play Nottingham Forest in front of a live audience on ITV’s ‘The Match’. Forest took a first half lead with a goal from Nigel Clough, before Steve Sutton saved a penalty from Arsenal’s Brian Marwood. The Gunners went in at half time on equal terms with an equaliser from Alan Smith. In the second half however, an avalanche of goals from Steve Bould, Tony Adams and Brian Marwood gave the Gunners a 4-1 win and pushed them up to second in the table, six points behind Norwich City with a game in hand. This season however saw Forest perform well in the Cup competitions.

By January, an impressive 5-2 home win over QPR put Forest in the Semi Finals of the League Cup, however would be over overshadowed Brian Clough punching fans who strayed onto the pitch at Full time. On the YouTube link in question, Luton Town chairman and Tory MP David Evans called for Clough’s sacking, though Cloughie literally kissed and made up with the Forest fans in question (complete with a Duncan Norvelle impression to boot!). Forest sealed their place in the League Cup Final after beating Second tier Bristol City over two legs to meet David Evans’s Luton Town in the Final. Ahead of that however, Forest visited Highbury in the League in early March.

Forest enjoyed a run of five wins out of six in the League, while Arsenal in contrast had won just one of their last four games. On a seriously poor Arsenal pitch, the Gunners poor run of results continued. Nigel Clough opening the scoring by springing the famous Arsenal offside trap. Though Alan Smith equalised, the offside trap was sprung again, this time by Forest’s pacey winger Franz Carr. On an afternoon where the famous back four failed to cover themselves in glory, Steve Bould lost possession to former Arsenal flop Lee Chapman who was brought down by a professional foul committed by John Lukic just before he entered the box (a yellow card for Lukic, which no doubt in the years since would have been a straight red).