NOTTINGHAM FOREST
1     TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
0
   
(1) (0)
     
  Date : –  Thursday 26th December 2024
Kick off : –  15.00
  Competition : – Premier League
Venue : –  City Ground
  Crowd : –  30,200
  Referee : –  Craig Pawson (Sheffield & Hallamshire) Linesmen : – Mr. Simon Bennett; Mr. Dan Robathan
  Fourth official : –  Dean Whitehouse
  VAR official : – Michael Salisbury VAR Assistant : – Akil Howson
  Weather : –   Chilly, misty
  Forest kicked off the first half attacking the Trent end
  Playing time : –   90 + 7 minutes

 

NOTTINGHAM FOREST TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
GOAL-SCORERS
      Elanga  27m 59s   None
  CARDS
    Yates  (foul on Son)  10   Dragusin  (pulling back Hudson-Odoi)  49
    Anderson  (foul on Solanke)  45   Spence  (throwing ball down)  75
    Murillo  (foul on )  65   Maddison  (dissent)  77
    Spence  (foul on Jota)  90+4
  TEAMS
26.   Matz SELS 20.   Fraser FORSTER
     
34.   Ola AINA 24.   Djed SPENCE   
5.   Nicola MILENKOVIC 14.   Archie GRAY
31.   MURILLO    6.   Radu DRAGUSIN     (  8.   Yves BISSOUMA  87)
7.   Neco WILLIAMS 13.   Destiny UDOGIE (  23.   Pedro PORRO  81)  
      
22.   Ryan YATES (c)    30.   Rodrigo BENTANCUR (  15.   Lucas BERGVALL  64) 
8.   Elliott ANDERSON     (  18.   James WARD-PROWSE  82)  29.   Pape Matar SARR (  10.   James MADDISON  64   
   
21.   Anthony ELANGA    (  4.   MORATA  74)  22.   Brennan JOHNSON
10.   Morgan GIBBS-WHITE  (  2.   JOTA Silva  82)  21.   Dejan KULUSEVSKI
14.   Calum HUDSON-ODOI  (  24.   Ramon SOSA  87 7.   Heung-Min SON  (c)  (  16.   Timo WERNER  81) 
      
11.   Chris WOOD  (  9.   Taiwo AWONIYI  87)  19.   Dominic SOLANKE
Substitutes Substitutes
  33.   Carlos MIGUEL 40.   Brandon AUSTIN
  15.   Harry TOFFOLO 3.   Sergio REGUILON
  19.   Alex MORENO 64.   Callum OLUSESI
  30.   Willy BOLY 42.   Will LANKSHEAR

    = Assist        =  Goal scored       =  Own goal scored

Manager : – Nuno Espirito Santo Manager : –  Ange Postecoglou
Kit Supplier : –   adidas Kit Supplier : – Nike
Shirt Sponsor : – Kaiyun Sports Shirt Sponsor : – AIA
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Ideagen Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – Kraken
Colours : – Colours : –
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT
  After the previous three Spurs matches with five, seven and nine goals, it might have been reasonable to extrapolate that this game would deliver  eleven.  As it happened, this produced only one to determine the outcome and that came for the home team.

After Forest kicked off, Spurs won the ball and Kulusevski looked to scoop the ball into the box for Son, but it went through to Sels, then, with the ball on the edge of the Forest box, Pape Matar Sarr went down but the referee deemed that he hadn’t been fouled. There was a free-kick at the other end when Bentancur fouled Gibbs-White when he was played a short pass by Spence, but the ball was played in low and skipped up off the wet turf into Foster’s midriff. It was a fast start and when Kulusevski won the ball inside the Forest half, he moved the ball onto Son, who ran to the edge of the box before putting in a shot that had no power and was straight at the keeper.

Five minutes in, Ryan Yates committed his first foul of the day, barging over Sonny in the Spurs box, shortly followed by a tackle by Anderson that left Brennan Johnson holding his ankle. Yates got booked in the tenth minute for a “rustic” challenge from behind on Son. It was really only going to be a question of time.  Spurs didn’t make anything from the free-kick, being just inside the Forest half, but the home side broke and Hudson-Odoi flashed a shot over the bar coming in off the left. The fouls on Spurs players continued with Gibbs-White throwing himself at Udogie then claiming it was his shoulder, whereas he broadsided the Spurs man.

Tottenham’s passing was falling short of the intended receiver, but when Forest picked one off and looked left for Elanga, Destiny had gone back with his to win possession. The first back-pass that Fraser Forster got, the home crowd “Ooh-ed” in anticipation that he would get caught by a Forest player dwelling on the ball, but he played it long to Johnson, who headed it on down the line for Kulusevski, but Spurs ended up turning the ball back. While getting into some good wide positions, the final ball into the box was poor with Sels taking a couple of crosses unchallenged.

When Spurs moved the ball quickly, they looked better, with Solanke having a shot blocked before it came to Johnson in the area and he forced Sels to a save, but Gibbs-White won the ball as it was cleared and suddenly, Elanga had a shooting opportunity at the other end, dipping it over the bar.  The winger did better when Gibbs-White slipped the ball to him on the right of the D when they counter-attacked on the half-hour and he slid the ball across Forster to nestle the ball in the opposite bottom corner.  It was tight for offside, but after VAR had a long look the goal was given.

A loose pass out by Forster to Dragusin went past the Romanian, who then had to make a sliding interception in the Spurs box when the ball was played in low. Seven minutes before the break Tottenham put together their best move with Kulusevski showing his strength to hold off Williams and he threaded a short pass past the defender for Johnson running in to hit a shot that was at a decent height for the keeper to push over the bar for a corner.  Sels had a worrying moment a couple of minutes before half time when Spence’s dipping cross left the keeper unsure of where it was going and he was fortunate to see it dip wide of the goal.

There was only going to be one minute added on, but Anderson dived into a nasty tackle on Solanke’s ankle and went into the book, giving Spurs a free-kick to the right of centre which Son curled at a good height but a couple of feet to the right of the goal. 

At the start of the second half, we had some good passing around the Forest box, but it ended with Dejan dragging a weak shot wide. Dragusin was booked in the 49th minute for a pull back on Hudson-Odoi as he tried to ruin off him and then any advantage the home side had was wasted when Gibbs-White pushed over Sarr off the ball.  

A cross was heading for Chris Wood, when Forster came for it and got a good hand to it, but it fell for Gibbs-White, whose follow-up was blocked by the Spurs keeper and although Elanga kept it in, Spurs won the ball to break and win a corner.  From it, Dragusin appeared to push a Forest defender down, then Gibbs-White and Solanke both went down and it ended up as a goal-kick.  After couple of corners, Sels punched one clear, Sarr volleyed it back at goal and although it was blocked, Johnson did well to turn in the box and force Sels to block his shot with the loose ball hitting Murillo’s arm while he was on the ground.  It was never going to be a penalty as he was supporting himself on that arm but VAR had to have a look at it before they confirmed no penalty.

Tottenham had a little spell of not being able to get the ball clear of their goal with Forster again slapping a cross out that Elanga didn’t make a decent contact with and it dribbled through to the Spurs keeper and then a long period of penalty-box wrestling resulted in Milenkovic heading over. Ange decided to change up the midfield with Bergvall coming on for Bentancur and Maddison replacing . Lucas was kicked on the shin straight away by a late Murrillo boot and he saw yellow for it.  Maddison also made an impact, sending Yates sliding the wrong way with a turn that gave him space to shoot, but he put it too high. Another poor finish, this time at the other end, came in a Forest attack that saw a shot spin up In the air and Aina took a massive swipe at the ball and topped it wide.

Pawson was mugged when Maddison made a tackle that was given as a foul and then Djed slammed the ball down in frustration so got booked. Forest had brought on Morato for Elanga and dropped deeper, but also dropped to the ground more and more.  Postecoglou’s final throw of the dice was to take off Udogie and Son and bring on Werner and Porro. Forest made some substitutions along with Bissouma replacing the injured Dragusin, with Awonyi coming on and he caused confusion in the Spurs box, but hit a shot into the side-netting.

Spurs pinned Forest back into their box as the game approached five minutes of added time but couldn’t find a way to goal.  A ridiculous decision by Spence to bring down Jota when he tried to break away outside his own box when a corner was cleared, so it gave the referee the opportunity to pull out a second yellow card and the Forest player had been looked for it, suckering Djed into the challenge.  It was the end of any challenge we might have made at the end of the match.

Not only did we suffer a defeat to one piece of good finishing from Forest, but potentially have lost two more defenders; Spence definitely for one match and Dragusin possibly for longer depending on how badly he was injured.  Thankfully Bentancur came through without getting booked, so will be available for the Wolves match, because the way things are going, he might be needed to play centre-half !  

Whether it is the run that the team are on at the moment, or the tiredness in the legs and minds, but there seemed to be a reluctance to take Forest players on in the attacking third.  It resulted in the ball being passed around with inevitably, a ball coming in from a deeper position and not
from the dead-ball line, where so many of our goals arise from.

Although Tottenham dominated possession, Forest are set up to soak up pressure and hit on the break and that was where their goal came from.  With a limited choice of players and a run of nine game sin December (this was the eighth), you could see the toll it has taken on the players.  Our press is not as full-on as it was and players like Kulusevski look all in.  He keeps going, but without support, he can’t do it all on his own.  With another injury and with Spence getting sent off, it hurts us further in areas where we are pretty thin already. The match against Wolves, who have two wins in two under their new manager, looks a lot more daunting than it did a couple of weeks ago.

Patrick O’Hanrahanrahan

 

MATCH NOTES
 
  • Djed Spence was the first player to be sent off for Tottenham in the Premier League since Yves Bissouma was dismissed against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on 15.12.2023.

 

OTHER RESULTS
  Mancashter City 1 Everton 1
  AFC Bournemouth 0 Crystal Palace 0
  Chelsea 1 Fulham 2
  Newcash United 3 Aston Villa 0
  South Coast Big Club 0 West Ham United London 1
  Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Mancashter United 0
  Liverpool 3 Leicester City 1
  Brighton & Hove Albion 0 Brentford 0
  Woolwich Wanderers 1 Ipswich Town 0


Premier League Table 2024-25

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Liverpool 17 13 3 1 40 17 42 +23
2 Woolwich Wanderers 18 10 6 2 35 16 36 +19
3 Chelsea 18 10 5 3 38 21 35 +17
4 Nottingham Forest 18 10 4 4 24 19 34 +5
5 Newcash United 18 8 5 5 30 21 29 +9
6 AFC Bournemouth 18 8 5 5 27 21 29 +6
7 Mancashter City 18 8 4 6 30 26
28 +4
8 Fulham 18 7 7 4 26 23 28 +3
9 Aston Villa 18 8 4 6 26 29 28 -3
10 Brighton & Hove Albion 18 6 8 4 27 26 26 +1
11 Brentford 18 7 3 8 32 32 24 0
12 Tottenham Hotspur 18 7 2 9 39 26 23 +14
13 West Ham United London 18 6 5 7 23 30 23 -7
14 Mancashter United 18 6 4 8 21 24 22 -3
15 Everton 17 3 8 6 15 22 17 -7
16 Crystal Palace 18 3 8 7 18 26 17 -8
17 Wolverhampton Wanderers 18 4 3 11 29 40 15 -11
18 Leicester City 18 3 5
10 22 40 14 -18
19 Ipswich Town 18 2 6 10 16 33 12 -17
20 South Coast Big Club 18 1 3 14 11 37 6 -26