Tottenham Hotspur need a victory over Nottingham Forest on Sunday, but achieving this could prove difficult based on the recent history between the teams.
If you can’t beat them, join them. Use that logic and all of a sudden it makes sense as to why Ange Postecoglou decided to take the Nottingham Forest job
Even though Tottenham Hotspur have defeated Forest four times since the East Midland club’s return to the Premier League, their recent record against them is quite poor.
Let’s take a look at the last five times the clubs have locked horns and what that means ahead of their next clash.
Tottenham’s past five matches against Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur – December 15, 2023
Postecoglou was the man in charge last time Spurs won at the City Ground and Richarlison is the man who opened the scoring. More than two years later, the Brazilian is still proving to be important for his club, having bagged a late equaliser against Liverpool.
Spurs 3-1 Nottingham Forest – April 7, 2024
Tottenham’s most recent victory over Forest occurred after a rare 6pm Sunday kick off. The hosts were helped by a Murrilo own goal in the first half and despite a response from Chris Wood, Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro wrapped up the win. It will certainly be interesting to see if the Dutchman starts this time around, with Kevin Danso playing well against Liverpool.
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Nottingham Forest 1-0 Tottenham – December 26, 2024
Nottingham Forest had lost eight of their past 11 matches in all competitions… then they played Tottenham. Anthony Elaga scored in the 28th minute and the away team had nothing to offer, causing them to walk away with nothing. In fairness, the Spurs lineup was not great that day. The less we say about the Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray centre-back partnership, the better.
Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Forest – April 21, 2025
This fixture saw Nottingham Forest complete a Premier League double over Spurs for the first time since the ‘90s. It was pretty much over minutes after it started, with early goals scored by Elliot Anderson and Wood. Richarlison gave Tottenham a chance to get back in the game with an 87th minute strike, but the match ended in defeat. Fast forward one month though…
Nottingham Forest 3-0 Spurs – December 14, 2025
This absolutely rotten display will still be fresh in the minds of Tottenham supporters. Guglielmo Vicario was dreadful that day and there was a big debate about who was at fault when the Italian played a pass to Gray, when he was already being marked. Spurs were truly awful and got thrashed by a team who flirting with the relegation zone.
Spurs have to break the pattern against Nottingham Forest
Tottenham have lost to a lot of teams over the past two seasons, but Forest appear to pose a particular problem.
Spurs cannot let this continue, because a defeat on Sunday would put them at serious risk of going down. However, a win would do the exact opposite.
Richarlison clearly likes a goal against Forest and he could be key again as Igor Tudor looks for his first victory as the Tottenham manager.
This is arguably the biggest game of the club’s season and every player needs to give 100 per cent to get the three points.