It promises to be a long three weeks for Tottenham Hotspur and Igor Tudor. That is, of course, if Tudor gets the time, after Nottingham Forest plunged Spurs deeper into the relegation fight, recording a humiliating 3-0 victory. “We are staying up,” was the chant from the away fans, who delighted in suggesting Stevenage could be visiting this vast arena for a Championship game in August.
When Spurs, a point above the relegation zone, do re-emerge after the international break, their trip to Sunderland will be the first of seven games to save their Premier League status. For Forest, who had to weather a first-half storm, waves of Spurs set pieces, this turned into a dreamy afternoon in the capital, a second victory in four days and, crucially, Vítor Pereira’s first league win since taking charge last month. West Ham’s defeat at Aston Villa only enhanced Forest’s fuzzy feeling.
Igor Jesus rocked Spurs by heading in unmarked from a corner at the end of the first half and then Morgan Gibbs-White, a Tottenham target last summer, doubled Forest’s lead, capping a move he started when left totally unmarked just beyond the penalty spot. Evangelos Marinakis, the Forest owner, dug his heels in to keep hold of Gibbs-White amid that interest and handed him a new contract. The substitute Taiwo Awoniyi compounded things for the hosts, adding the third after side-footing in the impressive Neco Williams’s brilliant cross from the left.
The atmosphere at full-time was in sharp contrast to the one on the bustling High Road before kick-off, when thousands of Spurs supporters welcomed the arrival of their team coach. Then, there was hope. This result may not define the season but it could certainly go a long way to doing so, Forest swapping places with Spurs to move two points clear of them and three above the drop zone.
Spurs remain the only Premier League team without a win this calendar year and, ominously, across those 13 matches they have taken just five points – all draws – from a possible 39. Going back even further, their last home win in the league was at the beginning of December, against Brentford, and the one before that? August, on the opening day against Burnley. All of the goodwill Tudor built up from an encouraging display in a draw against Liverpool at Anfield and in the win over Atlético Madrid in midweek slowly frittered away here.
Spurs began with intent, after kick-off every outfield player moved into the Forest half as Guglielmo Vicario kicked upfield. Richarlison returned from suspension to partner Dominic Solanke, another one of Spurs’s three changes, in attack but by the time he was withdrawn midway through the second half, at 2-0 down, he threw his strappings to the turf in anger. Micky van de Ven began at left-back, Djed Spence the full-back on the opposite flank and Pedro Porro in midfield, but Van de Ven was replaced by Destiny Udogie at the interval to provide more attacking impetus.
Until Igor Jesus headed in a Neco Williams corner, Spurs appeared most likely to score, though before that a relatively routine Omari Hutchinson strike was the only shot on target from either. It was Igor Jesus who inadvertently headed against the Forest crossbar after trying to divert Kevin Danso’s long throw from the box. A couple of minutes earlier Mathys Tel chopped inside Ola Aina and saw a shot deflected wide and then Tel skated past Nikola Milenkovic, sending the Serbia defender tumbling as he chalked up another corner.
But desperation slowly accompanied Spurs’s almost every move, supporters praying that, this time, things would be different. They ached for a penalty when Aina caught Pape Sarr inside the box, instantly waved away by Michael Oliver, and Tudor extended his right leg on the touchline as Richarlison attempted to reach a Tel cross at the back post. There was the restlessness that rained down from the giant South Stand slope as Cristian Romero dithered to pick his pass. Perro fumed as the referee halted him from taking a quick free-kick approaching the hour.
Worryingly, all of that was before Forest added their second on 62 minutes. Gibbs-White started and finished the attack, spreading the ball wide to Callum Hudson-Odoi. The winger cut the ball back into the box where, about eight yards from goal, Gibbs-White had the freedom of Tottenham to hammer in, his strike cannoning in off an exposed Vicario, who will undergo hernia surgery next week. Romero asked questions of Tel but Sarr was guilty of losing his man. Suddenly Romero’s pre-match missive felt a little hollow. “We’ll fight for everything, all together, always,” the Spurs captain said in a video released to supporters hours before kick-off.
A stretching Lucas Bergvall could not direct an Udogie cross on target and, late on, Matz Sels saved from Solanke. Gibbs-White celebrated his goal by putting his fingers to his ears and now the only sound was the boisterous away end, hundreds of whom returned from central Denmark on Friday after watching Forest keep alive their hopes of Europa League glory, a quarter-final in Porto next on the calendar. Spurs, of course, know how that feels but, for now, the biting reality could not be much further away.
