Nottingham Forest head coach Philippe Montanier believes tonight's 4-0 EFL Cup third-round defeat to Arsenal was harsh on his side.

Goals from Granit Xhaka, Lucas Perez (2) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sealed The Gunners' place in round four and although Montanier had no complaints about the overall result, he felt the margin of defeat was tough to take.





He said: "I think 4-0 is a tough scoreline on us because we started well in the first half, we had three or four opportunities to open the scoring and that would have changed the game. But unfortunately we weren't as clinical as Arsenal.





"At 1-0 down we continued to play and carried on trying to create opportunities. But the penalty changed the game because it allowed them to control the game with a strong, technical level and it made life difficult for us.





"The fans tonight deserved to see at least one or two goals from us because they created a great atmosphere. I'm disappointed for the players and for the fans but we have to move on and we have to keep going."





Arsenal enjoyed 61% of the possession at The City Ground and despite Montanier's disappointment with the result, he believes his players can take lessons from coming up against one of Europe's strongest sides.





He said: "We will learn a lot from tonight's game because we have played a top team. Every time we regained possession we lost it again and that makes it really hard to get a result from any game.





"The players are frustrated because 4-0 is a hard defeat, especially at home and we feel we deserved a goal or two tonight. To do that though we have to be more clinical and to start taking our chances when they come along.





"It was a tough game physically for us tonight and the players will have to go and recover well ahead of the game on Saturday. We have many important games to come and we have to take points in the league."