Nottingham Forest (Away) 15.12.2023

The game was played on a chilly Friday night on the banks of the Trent, but Tottenham sent our fans home with the warm feeling of three points in the bag, while the Forest fans melted away into the night grumbling about the referee (although I’m not sure why, as they weren’t on the rough end of the decisions), but all staunchly behind their manager who is looking over his shoulder now that the club’s owner has little to distract him having quit as part of the Greek League committee.

It didn’t take long for the home crowd to see the problems their side have.  In just the third minute, Dejan Kulusevski managed to get Son in on goal in the left with an excellent pass inside Williams, but his shot was blocked by Turner as he came out to meet our captain. With the ball for the majority of the first 20 minutes, all Forest were able to do was try to hustle Spurs off it.  Yates made two fouls and you could say Williams was clumsy with two challenges on Son, but their approach was clear.  Get onto the Tottenham players quickly and look to hit on the break, which is fine as a tactic if you have the players to effect those breakaways.  In the 19th minute they did manage to get Elanga away, forcing a save from Vicario, but he had been offside anyway.

Pape Mata Sarr gave the ball away a couple of times, requiring the defenders to dig him out of a hole, while Kulusevski was giving the Forest defence plenty of anxious moments, including stumbling through a couple of tackles on the edge of their box to get the ball to Brennan Johnson. Playing against his old team, he prodded the ball first-time at goal and forced Turner into a scrabbling save to push it wide.  Davies on a header at the corner, but it was a little bit high and he couldn’t keep it down.  Meanwhile, back at the far post, Toffolo had dragged Son to the floor.

A Forest long throw (something they are re-introducing into the Premier League and have ball-boys to wipe the ball dry before it is taken – something that is banned in the EFL) brought a scramble in the box after the ball popped up into the air with Vicario patting the ball away unconvincingly as Kouyate came at him a couple of yards from goal, but he had handled it and the linesman signalled for a free kick.  When play stopped, attention was then required for Johnson, who had gone down and then had to leave the pitch bloodied from a clash of heads, with Oliver Skipp replacing him.  The change pushed Deki onto the right, but almost straight away Gibbs-White seemed to be on for a shot on goal, but moving into the area, he lost his balance and went down, as Ben closed in, but there was no chance of a penalty. The next time the two came together, the Forest forward pulled Davies down from behind and then knocked the ball away. The foul itself would have been a yellow card if the roles had been reversed.

Pedro Porro had a good chance in the 36th minute, when Son swung in a cross from the left aiming for Richarlison, but Porro stole in to meet it with his head, but it he glanced it wide, whereas, meeting it with his forehead, would have brought an effort on target, with the keeper planted on his line. Meanwhile Yates was going in with both feet to take Skipp out and then the ref still gave Forest the free-kick, but Forest were winning the ball off the Spurs players too often too close to our goal.

The referee finally pulled out a yellow card at Yates’ request when Udogie knocked him over meaning Destiny was out of the Everton match next  Saturday.  After Elanga had knocked Davies over with an elbow to his face, Spurs took the free-kick quickly and worked it down the right through Sarr to Kulusevski and his flat cross saw Richarlison run in behind Boly to head in, with the ex-Gooner keeper flying behind him having completely mis-judged the ball that came in.  It is good to see Richi among the goals and now that his operation is behind him, hopefully, we will start to see the best of him and this goal into added time was a boost for him and the team.

The second half began with Romero bringing down Kouyate and Yates once more in the referee’s face begging for a booking.  He was disappointed, as it was a foul, but that was all it was worth. From a short spell of pressure after a long throw-in, Elanga picked out Boly just inside the box, but he fired his shot high into the crowd.  Meanwhile, Yates was nowhere to be seen when Niakhate stuck his studs into Porro’s ankle. It wasn’t a nasty tackle, but one that appears to be worth a booking these days, but not here.  Gibbs-White went down as he often does and Pape picked up a yellow for a nothing foul that allowed the fouled player to bend a free-kick in that Vic punched out very well.  In the 57th minute, Forest got the ball in the net when Elanga put it past Vicario to score from Williams’ low cross, but he and two other Forest players were offside so it was wiped out.

Yates fouled Udogie.  Then Kulusevski got into the box and got past a couple of players, only for Mangala to block a shot from the edge of the six yard box when it looked like he might score and then Porro found a ball in to Son, but he couldn’t connect cleanly, as he flicked the ball up for himself and it went gently through to the keeper.  Forest tried to play the ball out from that, but a pass back to him saw Turner under pressure from Son and he could only scuff the ball out to Deki, 25 yards from goal.  There was still a fair bit for the Swede to do, but he put Niakhate off balance with a step-over, took the ball outside him to the right and powered a shot with his right foot past the goalie at his near post to make it 2-0.  The high press paid off by forcing the error from the ex-Woolwich keeper, who then was weak when the shot came in.

Forest tried to step things up with Danilo and Wood coming on for Boly and Kouyate, so an aerial bombardment was incoming. Danilo fired over from the 18 yard line, but in the build-up Bissouma got a yellow for a foul on Yates around his knee with a straight leg and the ref was called over to the monitor by VAR, meaning that it was converted to a red and Spurs had to play 20 minutes with ten men, 25 minutes less than we had to at Luton.  Richi was sacrificed to bring on Hojbjerg to stiffen the midfield up in Yves’ absence.

Gibbs-White knocked the ball past Ben Davies and was brought down, with Yates wanting a red card, even though there was Romero covering. A yellow it was, despite the moaning, which also followed a volley over the bar from Gibbs-White, who continued to nag the referee. Son was hauled down by Yates from a corner, but then Son got booked when he pulled down a Forest player for a nothing foul, seeing as Mangala had just committed two similar fouls within a minute. Forest’s desperation was evident when their fans howled for a penalty when Williams ran into Destiny in the box with the Spurs man having nowhere to go.

Spurs were still looking to add to their tally when Skipp passed down the right for Kulusevski to run at the home defenders. He came inside when he reached the box and struck a low shot with his left foot that almost caught out the keeper, who had to dive to his left to keep it out. Finally there was a yellow card for a Forest player, when Murillo scissored Porro having won the ball.

Cristian Romero managed to get a toe on a low shot from Williams, deflecting it wide for a corner that was played to the far post, where Toffolo met it. He headed it down from a couple of feet out and with Guglielmo falling backwards, the Spurs keeper kept the ball out by throwing his legs at it to stop it crossing the line. Forest were trying to prevent Vicario reaching the ball from set-pieces by getting Wood to stand in front of him, but Spurs did well to defend them.

Interestingly, the referee deemed a stamp on Skipp’s foot by Murillo not worth a booking, when Spurs players had been booked for less dangerous contacts.  But, of course, it would have meant sending Murillo off and the bottle was dropped very quickly. Yates then fouled Udogie.  Sonny made way for Emerson Royal to come on to add height to the side, which would be needed as Forest would be pumping high balls into the box.  Elanga put one of them a yard wide on the volley at the far post, having been put off by Toffolo’s jump and then the defender got booked for a tackle exactly the same as Murillo’s on Skipp.  Don’t mention the C word.

Spurs were able to maintain possession and worked the ball down the left, when Kulusevski started it with a great reverse ball to Skipp when running back towards his own goal and the move ended with Porro hitting a shot that looked on target before Murillo headed it over.  High ball after high ball was out into the Spurs box and Tottenham held firm. The only opportunity that the home side made was when a ball found its way through to Williams at the far post, with a touch of handball before he scuffed a shot at goal that hit the base of the post. It bounced back off Vicario and was put out for a corner. It was a bit of luck, but we have had more than our share of bad luck that it had been a long time coming.

Deki went off in the last minute to the adoration of the Spurs fans and Alejo Veliz came on to receive the short corner just ahead of the final whistle. The match was slightly harder than it should have been, but even with ten men, there were few real worries, as Forest are quite one-dimensional.  There is little to indicate that goals will be free-flowing for them and while they are missing their main scorer Awoniyi, the many players that they have signed over the last season and a half don’t appear to include a forward who can fill in for him.  They seem to have tried to spend sensibly, buying younger players who have experience in the top flight mixed with some slightly older players, but some have gone past their sell by date and the younger players try hard, but there is a reason they were released by their previous clubs.  There are also some issues about the way they play, trying patterns of play that they lack the players to implement.  And on this occasion they were let down by their goalkeeper, who looked the epitome of the American keeper.  You could tell by the way he leaps about the box when he has the ball in his arms that a European goalkeeper wouldn’t.  The dive out when Richarlison scored looked like a keeper whose judgement is flawed and he proved that he is not a lot better with his feet when presenting Kulusevski with the second goal.

For the win we should be thankful to a few players.  After the early carelessness, Sarr settled to played a composed game that helped win midfield battles, while Romero and Davies were strong at the back, with Vic keeping well, with one save from Toffolo’s header being quite instinctive.  But Deki was the player who created most problems for Forest, both on the left before Johnson was substituted and then on the right after.  His pin-point cross allowed Richarlison the opportunity to head past Turner and silence the home fans, while his industry well deserved his goal, taking the ball on and then hitting it with such power that Turner could not stop it flying into the net in front of the Spurs fans.

The reportedly noisy home crowd were silence and like all who have little more to sing about fell back on past glories to try to taunt our supporters, but it is their current predicament that can be thrown back at them.  We move on and will be facing Everton next weekend with even fewer players after the cards dished out today.

Stanford Rivers

• A new Spurs record was set as this was the 15th consecutive away Premier League match Tottenham had scored in.
• The match was the 27th consecutive Premier League match Spurs have scored in.
• This was the 30th consecutive match Tottenham have scored in all competitions.