Nottingham Forest 1 Tottenham 0: Elanga scores winner as Spence red card and Dragusin injury cause chaos for Spurs
HE would never admit it, but Nuno Espirito Santo must have particularly enjoyed this one.
The tight-lipped Portuguese suffered a miserably short spell as Spurs boss back in 2021, getting the sack after just 17 games.
But it has been a wholly joyful experience at the City Ground for Nuno, whose victory here over his former side sent Nottingham Forest into third.
Current Tottenham incumbent Ange Postecoglou, in contrast, had to suffer chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” after a ninth league loss of the campaign.
That seems premature given the Aussie’s crippling injury list and how his side are faring in the cups.
But many more of these, and you would start to fear for the 59-year-old, who saw Forest old-boy Djed Spence sent off in stoppage time.
Having said that, there is no shame in losing to Forest this term – even if Nuno being at the helm is an extra sickener for Spurs fans.
This is the only side to have beaten near-perfect Liverpool this season and who are now on a run of four straight wins in the league.
Champions League qualification is becoming less and less of a pipe dream with every passing victory for the former European Cup winners.
Few fans would be expecting it, of course.
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But they are certainly in the picture, and rightfully so on this evidence, having prevented the league’s top-scorers from netting and moving ELEVEN points above them in the process.
Forest looked every bit the hard-to-beat, organised outfit that Nuno has turned them into throughout the game.
They had bite in midfield – you always will with Ryan Yates – and a threat on the counter thanks to speed merchants Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga on the flanks.
It is a formula that is becoming increasingly reliable, similar to the one Nuno produced at Wolves.
As for Postecgolou’s box-of-chocolates Spurs, there really is no telling which version of them you are going to get from match to match.
One thing you can bank on though is that for all their exciting attacking play, they will always give up chances.
Particularly with the patched-up defence Postecoglou is having to put out over this festive period, including Spence starting his fourth game in a row, having waited two-and-a-half years to be included in a Spurs’ starting line-up.
Tottenham signed the 24-year-old from Middlesbrough in 2022, but it was because of his stellar form on loan at Forest in their promotion-winning Championship campaign.
The home fans referenced that with a chant of “You used to play for a big club” as Spence waited to take an early throw.
While Brennan Johnson, who joined Spurs from the Tricky Trees last year for £47.5million and back starting here, suffered some pantomime-villain boos.
Spurs were by no means poor in the first 45 here, but were also nowhere near their swash-buckling best.
Son Heung-min should have teed up an open Johnson inside the first five minutes but instead weakly shot straight at Matz Sels.
Hardman Yates clattered into Son five minutes late and copped his fifth yellow of the season – a surprisingly low amount but one that will see him suspended for Sunday’s trip to Everton.
The two teams traded half-chances and long-rangers before Elanga broke the deadlock on 29 minutes.
It was Spence who lost the ball, allowing Forest to break through Morgan Gibbs-White, who carried the ball downfield and then played a defence-splitting ball through for Elanga.
The rapid Swede had the composure to match his pace as he slotted round the advancing Fraser Forster to complete a classic Nuno counter.
It prompted the sacking chants towards Postecoglou from the standing section of the Peter Taylor Stand, who also aimed a “You’re just a fat Aussie b***ard” taunt at the Spurs chief.
Postecoglou was facing up to a ninth league defeat before the New Year.
His side would have gone in level had Johnson managed to beat Sels just before the break, but once again the ex-Newcastle stopper produced a top stop.
That theme continued after the break when on 57 minutes, Johnson looked all the world as if he would score after ghosting in with a clever flick, but Sels proved his nemesis again.
Spurs had few other chances, truth be told, and then saw Spence go in injury time after a foul on sub Jota Silva earned him a second yellow.
Spurs had not lost on Boxing Day since 2003, when ‘Mad World’ by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules was top of the charts – a fitting theme to the crazy heights Nuno’s Forest are scaling this season.