Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Boxing Day
Tottenham Hotspur suffered their ninth defeat of the Premier League season as they were beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest at City Ground on Boxing Day.
Anthony Elanga opened the scoring in the 28th minute, which turned out to be the winner in the end. The Swedish international capped off a swift counter-attacking move from Nottingham Forest, toe-poking Morgan Gibbs-White’s inch-perfect through ball with his left foot past the onrushing Fraser Forster.
Spurs had spells of possession and tried unlocking the door, with Brennan Johnson testing Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels in either half. However, the chances were few and far in between as Ange Postecoglou’s men barely carried a threat in the final third and failed to score.
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Facing the media after the defeat at City Ground, Ange Postecoglou touched on many topics. When asked why Tottenham failed to score, he explained (h/t Football London):
“It’s a bit of, like I said, game state. I kind of knew that if they can get a goal up, it was going to get even tighter for us to find space behind them. It was never going to be a game with a lot of opportunities.
“Having said that, I still thought we created some good ones and we just weren’t able to capitalise on them. The keeper has pulled off a couple of good saves to keep them in the game.
“We just needed a goal to break them open and we didn’t seem to get it.”
Tottenham have a lot of problems including defensive frailties but scoring goals isn’t one of them. Postecoglou’s high-octane, pressing and aggressive system have yielded 39 goals in 18 league games—making Spurs the top scorers in the Premier League.
This was only the fourth time Big Ange’s side have failed to score in the Premier League this season. Including today’s game, the Lilywhites failed to score against Arsenal, Crystal and Bournemouth and all of those ended up being 1-0 defeats. This shows whenever the North Londoners have failed to find a way past their opponents, they have lost.
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Spurs are blessed with so much attacking quality and talent, capable of blitzing any team as we have witnessed in fixtures against Manchester United, Manchester City, Aston Villa, West Ham, Southampton and Everton. However, today was one of those days where Big Ange’s team didn’t really look like scoring.
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Nine defeats in 18 games in the Premier League this season is simply not good enough, and the latest result leaves our gaffer under more pressure.
