Nottingham Forest (Away) 05.09.2026

De Zerbi set up with Conor Gallagher was preferred to Mateus Fernandes in midfield and loan signing Mudryk was on the bench, while Tosin was nowhere to be seen.  Savio started on the right wing, with Udogie at left back instead of Robertson.  Marmoush was the lone striker.

While the early exchanges were fast and furious, from the eighth minute Spurs won a series of four successive corners, but none of them threatened the Forest goal.  The home team won a corner in the 12th minute that ended up with Murillo hooking a volley at goal from 12 yards out, but it went harmlessly wide.  The closest Spurs came to a goal was when Porro curled a pass beyond Williams and Marmoush went through to shot just wide of the far post as he moved right.  The ref then gave a free-kick for a foul on Williams, although he had been letting go the crash and bash tackling that had been going on, so it wouldn’t have counted anyway.  With rapid closing down and players snapping into tackles there was little time available on the ball and so the game had little finesse or flow.  That was borne out by the 17 first half fouls and many more that weren’t given, although the ref didn’t allow as much to go in the second half when there were 19 fouls.

From a 22nd minute free-kick, Bentancur won the ball at the far post and sent a header looping gently over the bar, although it did look like it had come off Murillo’s head.  McAtee had an attempt at a volley at goal only went up in the air three yards from where he struck it on the edge of the box, but in trying to clear, it dropped for Gibbs-White who smashed a half-volley high into the Bridgford Stand.  The Forest midfielder then crossed way beyond Ndoye, who went down holding Udogie, looking for a penalty. Cunha came closer with a touch and a half volley after he picked up Udogie’s headed clearance, but it cleared the bar by a couple of feet.  Just after the half hour, Murillo tried an overhead kick from a half-cleared corner, but sent it high and wide.  Kinsky was brave when a long ball looked to find Williams, but the Spurs keeper got there first before being crashed into.  Delap couldn’t understand why play was stopped, but that is no surprise the way that he plays the game.

Coming up to half-time, Delap played a through ball to Gibbs-White on the turn that put his team-mate in on Kinsky, but the keeper spread himself to block the shot before the flag went up for offside.  Micky van de Ven was producing some well-times tackles to prevent Forest progress down their right but Delap seems to have some entitlement to complain about everything and anything.  When Ndoye looked to run down the right touchline, Udogie stepped across him to prevent him moving forward.  Destiny was booked for it, which was a surprise when viewed against some of the tackles that had been going on.

Half-time brought some respite from the on-pitch chaos.

Almost immediately, the ref seemed to take a different approach to fouls.  With Williams penned in his own corner, Savio stood behind him while being backed into as the Forest defender looked to make some space for himself and the surprise of those in white and glee to those in red, a free-kick was given.  Soft doesn’t quite cover it.  A genuine free kick was given, along with a booking, when Milenkovic was late on Marmoush a yard to the left of the D, but Marmoush’s free-kick hit the wall.  This led to a series of scrambles in the box that brought a corner which Micky headed a yard wide with the attentions of Sels doing enough to force the Spurs kipper to put it off target after getting ahead of the Forest goalie.  van Hecke also put a header just wide as Spurs continued their dominance of the second half.

With 30 minutes left, Kudus replaced Savio and Robertson for Udogie.  Williams fouled Kudus and when a free-kick was given he went finger-wagging in the face of the ref.  Why they put up with this dissent, I don’t know.  Williams was also to be disappointed in the ref when he bundled the ball over the line on 65 minutes.  It came when Gibbs-White was played in on the right side of the box.  As he headed towards the dead ball line, he looked to dink the ball over Kinsky, who got a touch to it to deflect it up into the air.  It went across goal and with van Hecke unable to do much as he was facing his own goal and Tonali failed to make a decent contact to clear it, as Williams threw himself at the ball as it went towards the line, but did so with his hands up to his head as he went low and eventually, VAR decided that the ball had hit his arm and the goal was disallowed.  To say that it would have been against the run of play would have been an understatement. 

When the battering ram that is Delap charged into van Hecke to concede yet another free-kick the crowd started singing “You don’t know what you’re doing”, but I am not sure if this was aimed at the referee or their own centre-forward.  Spurs had a decent chance when Kinsky picked out a long ball forward to Marmoush on the left and with Kudus to his right and Robertson wide to his left, he came inside to fire a shot way too high.  Forest responded with a cross that Jesus couldn’t quite reach but wanted a penalty for, as Bentancur made a slight contact with him.

With just over a quarter of an hour left, Spurs gave a debut to loan signing Mykhailho Mudryk, while Forest replaced one lump up front with another when Wood came on for Delap.  Kudus proved too good for McAtee, who chopped him down to earn a yellow card.  Spurs were defending well, but with only having a minute on the pitch after coming on as a sub, Manuel Fernandes was booked for a foul on McAtee.  The free-kick was played in by the Forest midfielder, but eluded everyone as the home side had the better of the last ten minutes.  Having said that Fernandes slipped a pass right to Kudus, whose cross into the middle of the area was met by Dominic Solanke’s header, but the sub had to stretch with the ball slightly behind him and it went inches over the bar.

A late free kick by the man in the mask Munoz on Mudryk, with a challenge the same as Udogie got booked for, was taken by Robertson but Sels punched away and Porro missed his volley on the edge of the box.  The game might have been summed up when Kudus took a throw-in with both feet on the pitch according to the linesman.  At the end of the match, there were many boos from the home side, but I fail to see why unless they don’t like the bumper car style Glasner has adopted.  They want to try having to watch Spurs play at home !

It was a match that the sports channels wisely chose to avoid, as the highlights package would have been minimal unless you wanted to show committed play and physical (sometimes over-physical) challenges.  Tonali looked better than in the previous two matches, with Gallagher doing a good job covering for Porro when he linked up with Savio down the right.  Bentancur was all over the pitch, joining up play and getting back to defend, while there were brief glimpses of what the wingers (Kudus, Mudryk and Savio) could do, while Marmoush didn’t get a lot of service, but worked hard.  The Dutch central defensive pair looked better today as well, showing good pace and strength.

A point is a point at the moment and while it wasn’t the greatest game ever, the club’s 144th birthday was celebrated (?) by coming off the bottom of the table.  Hopefully, the only way is up.

• Mykhailo Mudryk made his Tottenham debut.
• Spurs failed to score in three successive Premier League matches for the first time since November 2021 and for the first three league fixtures of the season since 1974-1975.
• .