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It promises to be a long three weeks for Tottenham Hotspur and Igor Tudor. That is if Tudor gets the time, after Nottingham Forest plunged Spurs deeper into the relegation fight, recording a humiliating 3-0 victory at this vast arena.
When Spurs, now 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. Perhaps appropriately, here Tudor was dressed all in black and there was a funereal feeling to things when the final whistle blew and the jeers rang out from the stands.
For Forest, this was 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. Igor Jesus rocked Spurs by heading in from a corner at the end of the first half and Morgan Gibbs-White, a Tottenham target last summer, doubled Forest’s lead, capping a move he started when totally unmarked close just beyond the penalty spot. Evangelos Marinakis, the Forest owner present here, dug his heels in to keep hold of Gibbs-White amid that interest.
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. 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 five points – all draws – from a possible 39. 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, this a fifth straight league game without victory.
Spurs began with intent, after kick-off every outfield player moved into the Forest half as Gugliemo Vicario kicked the ball upfield. Richarlison was back from suspension so partnered Dominic Solanke, another one of Spurs’s three changes, in attack. 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Ven began at left-back, Djed Spence the full-back on the opposite flank and Pedro Porro in midfield, but Van de Ven was withdrawn at the interval, having injured himself midway through the first half.
Desperation accompanied Spurs’s almost every move, supporters praying that, this time, things would be different. They cried for a penalty when Ola Aina caught Pape Matar 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 Mathys 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. Pedro 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 before driving into the box. Hudson-Odoi 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.
Gibbs-White celebrated 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. Spurs, of course, know how that feels but, for now, the biting reality could not be much further away.
