The Guardian

Ange Postecoglou stood, as he always does, hands in pockets, at the edge of his technical area. It had been another frustrating afternoon, a defeat that means Spurs have now won just one of their last eight games. There was general grumbling rather than targeted fury, but also the clear sense of another season drifting away for Spurs. For Newcastle, meanwhile, a fifth successive Premier League win means Champions League qualification, which seemed so unlikely when they lost at Brentford a month ago, seems a suddenly realistic target.

Of course it was going to be like this; how could it not have been? This is just the way Spurs do it, mate. There stands Postecoglou; he can do no other. But there also stands Radu Dragusin, and there stands Pape Matar Sarr, mystifyingly far apart. This is about philosophies, but it’s not only about philosophies. There is no system in which the opposition should be allowed to wander through the spaces in the way Newcastle did at time towards the end of the first half. That is not anybody’s process, and Eddie Howe’s side, particularly before half-time, took full advantage.

And it’s not to say it’s untrue to point out that the focus on Postecoglou and his dogmatism deflects from far deeper issues. Tottenham’s wages-to-turnover percentage stands at a startling 47%, the lowest in the Premier League. That could be construed as the sign of a well-run club, but it also hints at a lack of ambition. Maybe if they pushed that to 48% they wouldn’t have begun the season with only three front-line centre-backs. It is unfortunate – or perhaps a result of the intensity of the Postecoglou style of play – that all three are injured at the same time, with Dragusin additionally forced off at half-time, but equally a squad that is thin in certain areas inevitably opens a side up to just that sort of bad luck.

It’s also why, when Guglielmo Vicario was injured, Spurs’ back-up was Fraser Forster, a very different style of goalkeeper. With the 36-year-old succumbing to the sickness bug that left Spurs with four teenagers on the bench, a debut was given to Brandon Austin. He turns 26 on Wednesday and has been at the club eight seasons, but has not played a senior game since Orlando City, where he was on loan, went down 3-1 to Chicago Fire in July 2021. The cheers every time he dealt effectively with a cross suggested just where expectations are these days.

Yet the new year had begun well for Spurs, Dominic Solanke muscling in front of Sven Botman, in his first game for 295 days, to head in Pedro Porro’s right-wing cross after four minutes. The spirit of bonhomie, though, lasted less than two minutes. Lucas Bergvall’s pass hit Joelinton in the hand, the ball broke to Bruno Guimarães who played it to Anthony Gordon, who converted neatly. The hand was by the Brazilian’s side and in no sense deliberate. Was it in the immediate buildup to the goal? Given two other players had to touch the ball before it hit the net, the referee and video assistant referee deemed not. Postecoglou shook his head grimly.

The equaliser was perhaps controversial but, equally, it was the sort of chance Spurs often concede, the ball given away in their own half. Again and again possession was squandered; again and again Newcastle created opportunities. Gordon had a couple of other chances, one well-saved by Austin, one slithering just wide. But Jacob Murphy was also a persistent threat getting in behind Djed Spence and, eventually, one of his low crosses flicked off Dragusin and was turned in by Alexander Isak, the seventh league game in a row in which he has scored.

Spurs rallied after half-time, Sarr drawing a stretching low save from Martin Dubravka and Brennan Johnson slamming the rebound against the post. James Maddison, watched by Thomas Tuchel in the first game the German has attended as England’s head coach, came off the bench to whip one just wide. Johnson and Sergio Reguilón smashed balls across the six-yard box in quick succession. And while it wouldn’t be accurate to say Newcastle presented no threat on the break, neither were they slicing through Spurs in the way others had this season.

Particularly given Spence had to be deployed as an auxiliary centre-back – he performed the role admirably – the second half could be painted as a positive, something to build on. The problem, though, is context: when a side has taken just 37 points from its previous 30 games, it’s not much consolation if the defeat is doughtier than they have been.

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Not long now: Led by referee Andy Madley and his team of match officials, the players of both teams march out on to the pitch for the last of the pre-match formalities on a bitterly cold afternoon in London. Dejan Kulusevski and Bruno Guimaraes wear the captains’ armbands.

I think I read somewhere this morning that there’s been at least one goal in each of the past 59 games played between these sides and I will hardly be alone in being gobsmacked if we don’t get several more today. Kick-off is just a few minutes away …

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Updated at 13.29 CET

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Updated at 13.17 CET

An email: “G’day Barry,” writes Chris Paraskevas, who I’m guessing might be in Australia. “The lads and I (three grown men with actual resoonsibilities in life) have tempted fate and assembled to watch the game together.

“In the past this has always resulted in disaster. To top things off, we are all wearing a variation of this season’s Newcastle strip. Given Tottenham have had to call up Ledley King at centre-back, surely even our me̶n̶’̶s̶ ̶c̶l̶u̶b̶ supporters club evil eye/curse won’t help Ange tonight.”

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Transfer news: It is being reported that Tottenham Hotspur are on the verge of signing Slavia Prague goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who is reported to be in London undergoing a medical. A fee of £12.5m plus add-ons is being mentioned for the Czech Republic U-21 international who has made 29 appearances for Slavia Prague this season and kept 14 clean sheets.

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Eddie Howe on the chatter linking Alexander Isak with a January move away from St James’ Park: “Our players are loved by us and wanted by us,” he told reporters. “Their focus can only be on the here and now. I don’t see it being an issue for us, especially in this transfer window. The players are very focused.”

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Updated at 13.10 CET

Ange Postecoglou on Tottenham’s transfer window plans: “The club is working hard to get some help for the playing group,” he told reporters. “We need to bolster up our numbers a little bit. January is obviously not an easy time to bring players in quickly and we still want to do what’s best for us rather than panic.”

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Updated at 13.10 CET

Today’s match officials

Referee: Andy Madley.

Assistants: Nick Hopton and Craig Taylor.

Fourth official: Lewis Smith.

VAR: Chris Kavanagh.

Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.

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Those teams: As expected, third choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin starts for Spurs and the 25-year-old from Hemel Hemstead will make his first senior appearance in English football following short loan spells in Denmark and the USA. The most recent of those, with Orlando, was in 2021.

Elsewhere in the side, Timo Werner starts ahead of Son Heung-min, while James Maddison is on the bench. Djed Spence gets another start, in place of the injured Destiny Udogie. Lucas Bergvall comes in for the suspended Rodrigo Bentancur.

Sven Botman is welcomed straight into the heart of Newcastle’s defence on his return from nine months on the sidelines with a knee injury, while Tino Livramento starts at full-back in place of Kieran Trippier, who drops to the bench.

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Updated at 13.10 CET

Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle line-ups

Tottenham Hotspur: Austin; Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence; Bergvall, Sarr; Johnson, Kulusevski, Werner; Solanke.

Subs: Whiteman, Reguilon, Dorrington, Hardy, Bissouma, Maddison, Olusesi, Son, Lankshear.

Newcastle United: Dubravka; Livramento, Botman, Burn, Hall; Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.

Subs: Vlachodimos, Trippier, Barnes, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Willock, Longstaff, Miley

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Early team news

With Fraser Forster out sick after catching a bug that’s infilitrated the Tottenham camp, Ange Postecoglou is expected to give 25-year-old goalkeeper Brandon Austin his first senior start in English football after five years at the club and 78 games spent on the bench as an unused substitute. Good luck to him.

A glum Ange revealed yesterday that Destiny Udogie is expected to be out for at least six weeks with a hamstring injury and the Spurs full-back joins a long list of lame and halt in the Tottenham treatment room.

The names of Guglielmo Vicario, Mikey Moore, Richarlison, Micky van de Ven, Ben Davies, Cristian Romero and Wilson Odobert all currently feature on it. Djed Spence is available again but Rodrigo Bentancur misses out today through suspension.

Newcastle are without Fabian Schar, who joins Bentancur on the Naughty Step, while Nick Pope, Callum Wilson, Jamaal Lascelles and Emil Krafth all remain sidelined with injury. Sven Botman is expected to undergo a late fitness test and could make his first appearance for Newcastle since last March after recovering from a serious knee injury.

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Updated at 13.10 CET

Premier League: Tottenham v Newcastle

Riding high in fifth place on the back of four consecutive Premier League wins, Newcastle arrive in London as the favourites to make it five on the spin against out-of-sorts hosts who have a lengthy injury list and are without a win in their past three games, two of which have been lost.

Tottenham Hotspur drew with Wolves last time out, while Newcastle’s most recent outing saw them humble Manchester United on their own turf at Old Trafford as they kept their fourth consecutive clean sheet in the top flight. Kick-off in North London is at 12.30pm (GMT) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.

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January can be the crucial month in the lifespan of a Tottenham manager. During Daniel Levy’s 24 years as chairman, there was once Harry Redknapp, warning of “bare bones” through Kevin Bond’s 4x4 window. The very public breakdown of Levy’s relations with Antonio Conte in 2023 came not long after the Italian failed to get what he wanted in the January sales. Tension boiled, too, with José Mourinho during the same month’s window.

Ange Postecoglou keeps his personal view of the ownership and the club’s executive class to himself. When the end comes for a Spurs manager it usually follows behind-the-scenes issues with Levy becoming headlines and Postecoglou continues to pride himself on not looking for excuses or relying on short-term solutions. As he resumed media duties after a six-day new-year rest where he said “the main driver was recovery”, the Australian betrayed little pressure following Spurs’ deeply unsatisfactory Christmas period, starting with a 6-3 home destruction by Liverpool, falling into Nottingham Forest’s traps in losing 1-0 on Boxing Day and then conceding a late equaliser to Wolves.

The lack of numbers Redknapp regularly complained of are in plain sight in January 2025. Destiny Udogie’s hamstring problem and six-week absence continued the decimation of Postecoglou’s defence and the manager admitted: “A bit of an illness bug running through the squad as well, so a few were missing training, but that’s all right, we’ll be ok.”

Against Newcastle on Saturday lunchtime, Archie Gray, a midfielder to the manor born, and Radu Dragusin will continue their unlikely central defensive partnership, Djed Spence, previously a forgotten man, lining up in place of Udogie at left-back. New blood will not be the immediate cure offered for Tottenham’s ills, though Postecoglou expressed belief the recruitment department, including the recently appointed chief scout, Rob Mackenzie, who once identified Toby Alderweireld, Kieran Trippier and Son Heung-min as future Tottenham players, can deliver, even though January is rarely where the biggest, game-changing deals are made.

Postecoglou appreciates the difficulties of January business. “It’s not a matter of pushing but I think the club are working hard to try and sort of get some help for the playing group and it’s no secret, we need to bolster our numbers up a little bit. January is not an easy month,” he said.

“We understand it’s not an easy time to bring people in particularly quickly. At the same time we still want to make sure we do what we think is the best thing for us rather than sort of just, you know, panic and bring people in who aren’t going to be a suitable fit. They are not having new year parties, they are out there working trying to improve our situation and they’ll continue to do so.”

Thus far, the only new player who could be available is Yang Min-hyeok, the Korean teenager whose arrival has increased the number of south-east Asian visitors waiting for autographs and selfies outside the Hotspur Park training ground. It may be some time until he lines up alongside Son. “We are just trying to get him settled early and give him the chance to settle in,” said Postecoglou of the 18-year-old. “No real plan, we will just take it as it goes with him and see how he settles in”. Yang spent the last two weeks of December living at the club lodge, and was able to take in the 4-3 Carabao Cup win over Manchester United that leaves a semi-final with Liverpool looming on Wednesday.

Before that, Newcastle, an opponent whose own rise and then associated further complications have often mirrored Tottenham’s. Not playing European football and the return of key players allowed Eddie Howe’s team to look the division’s freshest over the Christmas glut. They are in fifth – where Tottenham finished last season – having begun last month in 12th, a place behind where Spurs kick-off 2025.

Newcastle’s comparative fall from grace last season, when they lost four league matches during December 2023, was noted by Postecoglou, who empathised with Howe at the time. “I actually specifically mentioned Newcastle and how they have a ridiculous amount of injuries and it’s no wonder their form is suffering, but that’s a boring tale, mate,” he said. “People will be outside with pitchforks and looking for heads, so let’s not take that narrative.”

Prickliness will never be far away where Postecoglou is concerned, including when asked to review his personal 2024. “I know right now people don’t recognise it as anything but we finished fifth last year,” he reminded. “We finished eighth the year before and people keep forgetting that. I didn’t pick up a club that finished third or fifth.”

Ange Postecoglou is not ready to write off Tottenham’s Premier League campaign just yet despite more dropped points on Sunday.

Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Wolves after they conceded with three minutes left on another difficult afternoon that saw Destiny Udogie become the latest player to limp off.

With Rodrigo Bentancur also booked late on and set to serve a one-match ban when Newcastle visit on Saturday, Tottenham could be without 10 players. However, Postecoglou will not give up hope of being able to climb the table amid some crucial cup fixtures in January.

“It’s still fairly tight. I just feel that at some point we’ll get a relatively healthy squad and when we do that, we’ll be able to perform at a high level consistently,” Postecoglou insisted. “We’ve already shown this year we can beat anyone. There’s a chance there you can go on a run, but at the moment that’s secondary to the first bit. I can see how hard they’re trying and if we were at our sharpest, we would have got that third goal and maybe a fourth.

“I mean we were inches away at times from getting the goal we needed and I think we’re just lacking a little bit of that dynamic movement that we need. A lot of these guys, they’re finding some form of energy to still be out there trying, but you know we’re certainly not as sharp as we can be.”

Given the efforts of his players across a hectic December, Postecoglou has given the squad Monday and Tuesday off ahead of this weekend’s fixture with Newcastle, but again suggested they need reinforcements in the January transfer window.

Postecoglou added: “Yeah, it was always planned. We kind of knew this is the first week where we don’t have a midweek game, so I think the whole group probably needs a couple of days just to get away from everything and recover.

“It’s been fairly intense for a real small core group of players, particularly over the last four or five weeks and I think it’ll do them good to have a couple of days to themselves, with their families, and give them a chance to recover mentally as much as physically.

“I’ll just keep going. We’ve got work to do and try to get some help for these players. Our role is to try and give them everything we can, the support we can to perform at their best.”

A home game against relegation-threatened opposition ought to mean only one thing for Tottenham. Instead, there was an impossible-to-ignore sense of foreboding before and during plenty of this one. It is simply the period that Ange Postecoglou and his players are living.

Spurs trailed to Hwang Hee-chan, who started his first Premier League game for Wolves since August. They equalised through Rodrigo Bentancur. They missed a penalty, Son Heung-min the culprit. And then they led through Brennan Johnson. All inside the first half. They had the openings in the second period to make it 3-1, to soothe the nerves that were almost audible inside the stadium.

Everybody knew that there could be a late sting and not just because Wolves have been revitalised since Vitor Pereira replaced Gary O’Neil as the manager and promptly beat Leicester and Manchester United. And so it came to pass.

It was a slice inside from Rayan Aït-Nouri followed by the killer ball up to the substitute Jørgen Strand Larsen who took a touch and lashed high inside the near corner of the net.

There were boos from the frustrated home support upon the full-time whistle, who have seen their team win just once in the last seven league matches; an overall feeling of soul-searching. The result here was everything to Postecoglou and, for once, he probably did not care how it came. Once again, it would elude him.

Wolves have become something of a bogey team for Spurs. They had won on three of their previous five trips to this stadium and they travelled with a spring in their step, the bounce under Pereira pronounced.

Pereira heard the Wolves fans chant his name five minutes before kick-off and there were further choruses of it after his team went ahead in the early running. What was most noticeable was how much time and space Hwang had when Aït-Nouri rolled a short free-kick towards him just outside the Spurs box.

Johnson claimed he was blocked from getting out by Santiago Bueno but the lack of intensity from those in white was a worry. Hwang’s first-time curled finish was a beauty. At that point, it was easy to fear for Spurs.

The home crowd felt a little soporific. Too much Christmas turkey? Or too much time watching this team try to cover the spaces in front of the back four, to defend against the transition? They needed a lift and they got it when Bentancur attacked a Pedro Porro corner to flash a header home.

It was a strange first half. Spurs grew into it and finished on top. And yet they were loose at times, throwing a couple of slapstick moments into the mix, especially the one when Dominic Solanke and Bentancur banged into each other inside the Wolves box and went to ground. They had eyes on the same shooting opportunity after a Dejan Kulusevski cut-back. The offside flag would go up against Kulusevski.

Postecoglou’s team missed chances. Radu Dragusin headed inches wide from a Porro corner in the 24th minute. Yves Bissouma lashed high on 39 minutes and there was the Son penalty miss shortly afterwards.

The captain had endured a couple of wobbly moments, drawing murmurs from the crowd and he watched José Sá spring the right way to deny him from the spot. The kick had been awarded for a needless challenge by André on Johnson.

Johnson would make Son feel better before half-time. Son had just been thwarted by a fine tackle by the former Spurs defender Matt Doherty when Kulusevski checked inside from the right and went back to Johnson. It was a dynamic incision by Kulusevski. Johnson’s conversion was low and true.

Wolves’s prospects took another knock when Matheus Cunha failed to reappear for the second-half. He would be spotted on the bench with ice under his left knee. The Brazilian had been in the mood from the moment he executed a flair back-heel with his first touch. He roamed from the left, supremely confident on the ball, offering the impression he was certain about making something happen. Wolves would also lose André to what looked like a muscle problem.

Spurs had to reshuffle, too, their defensive injury woes compounded when Destiny Udogie pulled up with hamstring trouble shortly after the second-half restart. On came the lesser-spotted Sergio Reguilón.

The second period was a slog, one of the abiding images coming when Son was among the players withdrawn by Postecoglou. Son was a case study in dejection, head bowed, walking off at low speed. He had waited for what seemed an age before taking his penalty. This action took him rather longer.

Spurs had the chances to extend their lead. Solanke got away before showing too much of the ball to Bueno. Pape Sarr, on as a substitute, could not execute the final action after a fine run. Solanke could not get a touch to a cross from another substitute, Timo Werner. Kulusevski could not finish after good work by Solanke.

Wolves remained in contention. They had created little after the interval, save for an Aït-Nouri shot that Porro blocked. But this is Spurs, a team with a rare vulnerability about them. Wolves knew that one chance could change everything. When Ait-Nouri made it for Strand Larsen, it did.

Sarr might have scored in stoppage-time only to misdirect a header when well-placed and it said everything when Bentancur was booked for a crude hack at the Wolves substitute Rodrigo Gomes. Bentancur has only just returned from a seven-match ban for a racial slur against Son. Now he is banned for another game for accumulating five yellow cards.

Hello world!

Welcome! It’s going to be another packed afternoon as the festive fixturefest continues, so let’s get stuck straight into the fixtures, shall we?

Premier League

Crystal Palace v Southampton

Palace have only won one league game at home this season, and that was in October. Southampton, who don’t have any away wins to their name at all, would dearly love to keep that run going. Here’s Palace’s Oliver Glasner on this time of year:

It’s unusual but I never complain. As soon as I signed here I knew what would come. I told my family it will be Christmas [working]. Very often it’s, when you work in Germany, off for one week, 10 days but I also didn’t go home then, we always go somewhere in the south for warm weather and this time it’s different. But this is a good experience and I choose this life so nobody to blame. Here, many years ago, the Premier League decided to play over Christmas because the fans love it and everything we do we do for our fans.

Hmmm, I’d say that last point is debatable. Best not get me started on that one.

Everton v Nottingham Forest

Everton are eighth in the last-four-games form table, with no defeats and only one goal conceded, but Forest are top of it, the only side with a last-four-games 100% record. Here’s Sean Dyche on Everton’s upturn:

I have massive respect for players. When they’re delivering as they are doing, the willingness, the desire to work as a team, is a powerful thing. I think we’re showing that. But it’s one game at a time. I’ve always believed in that mentality, but it’s nice when you’ve got an underbelly of desire from a group of players who want to make a difference. I think we’re slowly but surely building. Now it’s about taking the next games on and trying to turn draws into wins but, if you can’t, then still not getting beaten and staying true to that mentality.

“Underbelly of desire” is a lovely phrase. I think I’m going to keep that one. It might even make a good adults-only Harry Potter sequel.

Fulham v Bournemouth

Fulham are joint top of the both-teams-score-in-our-games table – in fully 77.8% of their league matches this season both sides have got on the scoresheet (Leicester, Brentford and Brighton have matched them), but at home it’s 88.9% (with only Brentford keeping up in this one). The only time any side failed to score at Craven Cottage this season neither did, and that was their last home game, against Southampton a week ago. Here’s Marco Silva (who was pleasingly effusive about Alex Iwobi: “He’s been great. Last season he was top and this season he’s doing much better”) on the Bournemouth challenge:

What a battle it’s going to be. Iraola’s doing a great job, it’s always a tight game against them, competitive games, it’s going to be another one. They’re a really physical side, their front line is top level, they have pace, capacity for both full-backs, they are intense off the ball, aggressive and it’ll be a great challenge for us and we want to make it the same for them too.

Leicester v Man City (2.30pm)

I’ll keep you updated with significant developments in this one, but it’s also got it’s own liveblog with Scott Murray at the helm:

Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton

Never mind the Vitor Pereira bounce, Wolves have been better than Spurs for ages: across their last eight games, for example, a period that includes a run so bad it got the last manager the sack, they have won 12 points to Tottenham’s seven; even over the last 12 they’re 14-13 up. Is this the first game this season they’ve gone into as favourites? Here’s Ange Postecoglou keeping his chin up:

I get where people kind of look at my situation and think ‘Jeez, he needs to do something or else he is in trouble,’ but I don’t think that way. It’s not how I am wired. I’m not concerned about that aspect of this role. What excites me about this role and what I love about doing what I do is the possibilities you can create something special and that’s what I am going to try and do. Our league position is not great but it’s super tight and we’re not that far off. There’s still everything to play for, for us this year to make it a season where we can have success.”

West Ham v Liverpool (5.15pm)

Rob Smyth will be here in due course to take you through this one, so let’s not steal his thunder, eh?

Championship

Blackburn v Hull

Bristol City v Portsmouth

Coventry v Millwall

Derby v Leeds (5.45pm)

Middlesbrough v Burnley (8pm)

Norwich v QPR (12.30pm)

Oxford Utd v Plymouth

Preston North End v Sheff Wed (12.30pm)

Sheff Utd v West Brom (12.30pm)

Stoke v Sunderland

Swansea v Luton

Watford v Cardiff

League One

Birmingham v Blackpool

Bolton v Lincoln City

Charlton v Wycombe (12.30pm)

Exeter v Crawley Town

Huddersfield v Burton Albion

Leyton Orient v Cambridge Utd

Peterborough v Barnsley

Reading v Mansfield

Rotherham v Stockport County (12.30pm)

Shrewsbury v Northampton

Stevenage v Bristol Rovers

Wrexham v Wigan

League Two

Bradford v Chesterfield

Bromley v Swindon (12.30pm)

Carlisle v Accrington Stanley (12.30pm)

Cheltenham v Notts County

Colchester v Doncaster

Fleetwood Town v Harrogate Town

Grimsby v Port Vale

Milton Keynes Dons v Crewe

Salford City v Morecambe

Tranmere v Barrow

Walsall v Newport County

Scottish Premiership

Celtic v St Johnstone

Dundee Utd v Aberdeen (5.15pm)

Hibernian v Kilmarnock

Motherwell v Rangers

Ross County v Hearts

St Mirren v Dundee.

December was always going to be a tough month for Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham. Spurs faced crunch domestic and continental meetings with the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Rangers and Bournemouth, and failed to win all four. Of the eight games this month, they have won two, beating Southampton and Manchester United, and the latter they did their best to throw away.

Next up for Postecoglou’s side is Sunday’s home game against Wolves. On paper, a meeting with a relegation-threatened side should pose little threat to Spurs. However, Wolves come into the weekend’s trip to the capital following back-to-back league wins over Leicester and Manchester United. Vítor Pereira has made the desired impact having succeeded Gary O’Neil at the Molineux helm earlier this month, watching on as his side have scored five times and conceded none.

This will be a true test for a Spurs side that lost their fourth centre-back in Radu Dragusin to injury during the Boxing Day 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest. With the injuries piling up owing to Postecoglou’s relentless gameplan and intense training sessions, Spurs ended the defeat at the City Ground with a centre-back partnership of Archie Gray and Yves Bissouma, two central midfielders by trade.

Even if Spurs were at full strength, they’d have struggled to contain one of the Premier League’s form players. Matheus Cunha was again influential as Wolves beat United, scoring a second-half “Olympico” from a corner, the second Ruben Amorim’s side have conceded in eight days, before providing the assist for Hwang Hee-chan’s late strike. With the January transfer window fast approaching, it’s no wonder the Brazilian has been attracting interest from a number of the Premier League’s big hitters.

Wolves can ill-afford to lose a prized forward who has been directly involved in 14 of their 29 league goals this season, scoring 10, in the new year as they seek to consolidate a top-flight spot. Even prior to Pereira’s appointment, Cunha’s performances were effectively single-handedly keeping Wolves in with a shot of beating the drop. He was scoring the goals he perhaps shouldn’t, Thursday’s goal a case in point.

Cunha’s overperforming his expected goal haul by 6.02 is the biggest overperformance in the division. He should, given the quality of the chances presented to him, have scored just four league goals this season. While it’s not sustainable, Cunha’s final third showings are a core reason behind the 29 league goals Wolves have scored in 2024-25 – just one short of defending Premier League champions Manchester City – and are now outside of the relegation zone by a point.

The 25-year-old is the driving force for this Wolves side in the final third having completed the fifth most dribbles (38) and made the 11th most key passes (33), the former key for a Wolves side is averaging the seventh lowest possession return (46.6%) as they aim to ease pressure on the defence. It’s this ability to ghost past a marker that’ll undoubtedly prove key in Sunday’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Not only do Wolves have a very good record at Spurs, winning four of their last six trips to the capital, but Postecoglou’s side remain without key players at the back. Even at full strength, Spurs would have struggled with Wolves’ lightning-fast counters. Indeed, only Sunday’s opponents have scored more goals from counterattacks (10) than Wolves (7) at the time of writing.

This is a Spurs side that very much struggles with transitions. Without the pace of Micky van de Ven at the back, opponents find it easy to turn defence into attack, breaking the lines with a single pass given Postecoglou’s desire to commit men forward. For this Wolves outfit that is able to break forward at speed, with Cunha the catalyst in the final third, it could get ugly for Spurs in the capital this weekend.

Tottenham’s injury crisis has deepened after Ben Davies suffered a setback in training, twhich may leave Ange Postecoglou without a fit centre-back for Sunday’s visit of Wolves.

Spurs were already without Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and the Welshman for Thursday’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, but their problems were compounded when Radu Dragusin was forced off with an ankle problem.

It meant Tottenham finished the game with the midfielders Archie Gray and Yves Bissouma at the heart of defence, and they could continue against Wolves after Davies suffered an untimely setback. “He is ruled out,” Postecoglou said of the 31-year-old. “Unfortunately he had a setback in training so he’ll probably be out for a couple of weeks.”

On Dragusin, Postecoglou added: “A bit early to tell. He obviously tweaked his ankle last night and felt he couldn’t continue. We’ll have to wait and see.” The full-back Djed Spence received a second yellow card on his return to the City Ground on Boxing Day to leave Postecoglou short of options in defence.

He said: “We’re in a tough spot and we have been for a while. We’ve been kind of getting through it for quite a while and keeping our fingers crossed we don’t get any more issues, but the nature of football and fixture scheduling we’ve had, we’ve always been on a fine line of being able to get through. It’s another test for us but it is what it is, and whatever we need to deal with, we’ll deal with and get ready for Sunday.”

Postecoglou acknowledged this period is the worst he has faced in his lengthy managerial career, with Spurs potentially without nine players for the match against Wolves. “There’s always been issues at different times but not to this extent,” the Australian said. “I think we’ve had close to pretty consistently 10 first-team players not available for a significant run of games. Definitely a first for me.”

While there is a hope Dragusin could recover to face Wolves, if the Romanian international is absent there are limited options for Postecoglou, who was again asked why there is no winter break this season. He added: “I don’t know. I mean Yves has never played there [defence] so I am not sure why I would put him there. I had to put him there on Thursday because I had no one else, but we’ll see.

“I think you are seeing with the league this year and that’s probably why it is so congested because a lot of teams – probably not to our extent – are affected by injuries. It is quite easy to pinpoint why. The workload players are expected to perform at, but I guess that’s one for the authorities to sort out.”

Guglielmo Vicario, Van de Ven, Romero, Davies, Spence, Mikey Moore, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison are definitely absent for Sunday’s fixture.

The mist rolled in from the Trent to the point where it was sometimes difficult to make out which Spurs player was running down which blind alley in the second half. But what is crystalline clear is Nottingham Forest’s momentum which, after Anthony Elanga’s third goal in successive games, has lifted them into third place in the Premier League.

Nuno Espírito Santo, Forest’s former Spurs manager, has organised his team so well that they now have 34 points from 18 games, the same tally they had at this stage in 1987-88, back when Brian Clough was manager, back in the days when lifting the European Cup was a recent memory.

No manager in Premier League history (with at least 50 games under their belt) has seen his games average more than the 3.6 goals that have flown in during Ange Postecoglu’s reign. Not against Nuno, though. Forest’s fourth consecutive Premier League win came with a clean sheet, and only Liverpool and Arsenal have conceded fewer than their 19 goals in this season’s top flight.

The focus will fall on Tottenham’s continued failings and, after Sunday’s 6-3 demolition by Liverpool, they have now won only twice in nine games. This was their first defeat on a Boxing Day in 17 games but, with Djed Spence sent off in stoppage time for a second yellow card against his former club, the questions will be arrowing in at Postecoglu once again. That is another defender missing for their next game, at Wolves on Sunday, and the Spurs manager needs to find answers soon.

The proliferation of backdrop stories made this a fascinating match-up even before a ball was kicked and it was soon just as intriguing on the pitch. The game was set for a clash of styles – and this favoured Forest no end.

Even as Spurs dashed and probed, dominating possession, Nuno’s current team looked poised to inflict damage on the counterattack. Brennan Johnson, forming an all ex-Forest right flank with Spence, was given a warm welcome back to the City Ground as he was ruggedly felled by Elliot Anderson; Forest were clearly up for the fight.

When Elanga scored, it did not come against the run of play, even if Spurs, with their territorial advantage, might have claimed to be controlling the game. When he has a team playing how he wants, Nuno knows how to control games without the ball.

From one break, Callum Hudson-Odoi came back inside from the left and shot just over with his right foot. Who would have thought he had that in his locker? Then a lightning fast counter culminated in Elanga dipping a shot just over.

The goal, when it came, epitomised the precision under pressure that Forest possess, even at pace. Good pressing midway in their own half allowed Morgan Gibbs-White to pick up the ball and drive forwards in a situation he so often thrives in. He must dream about this, like a labrador puppy chasing a tennis ball in his sleep. The England man travelled a third of the pitch before dispatching the perfect through pass, right in behind Destiny Udogie, so that Elanga did not have to break stride as he opened up his body and cut the ball, left-footed, just over Fraser Forster and into the far corner.

Johnson came close to equalising before half-time when, showing a superb first touch to receive a pullback from the byline, his shot from close range required an excellent save from Matz Sels. Spence flashed a cross-shot across the face of goal; Son Heung-min’s free-kick rippled the side-netting, but from the wrong side for Spurs.

With Udogie back at left-back and Rodrigo Bentacur shielding the back four, Spurs’ absences might have been less keenly felt against lesser opponents. With the goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and the defenders Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero still out, however, Postecoglu was given more substance for his argument that new signings will be required in January.

Forest could have been two goals to the good before, reverting to five at the back and with Spurs dominating the ball and the territory for the final half-hour, the game felt more in the balance.

Forster had palmed out Elanga’s cross for Gibbs-White to come steaming in for his shot to be blocked and the loose ball somehow stay out of Spurs’ goal.

For all their dominance, though, the nearest Spurs came to an equaliser was when Pape Sarr’s cleared shot was returned into the box for Johnson to take a neat touch, eight yards out, only for Sels to save at his feet.

Ange Postecoglou has confirmed Tottenham plan to be active in the January transfer window. Spurs have been beset by injuries and suspensions over the past month and have fallen to 11th in the Premier League amid inconsistent form.

A thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals last Thursday was followed by a humbling 6-3 loss at home to Liverpool on Sunday and Postecoglou confirmed before Boxing Day’s trip to Nottingham Forest that the club aim to boost the squad.

“We’ve been planning,” he said. “A lot of it was going to be around where we’re at around this time. Fair to say we’re still a little bit short in a couple of areas and we need to reinforce. January’s trickier in terms of what sort of players you can bring in. For us, ideally – for any club, I guess – you want to bring in people who are going to make you stronger.

“I think the fact that, obviously, we’re still in the Carabao Cup semi-final, still got Europe, FA Cup, we’re in all the competitions, it’s not like our schedule’s going to ease up at any stage. So, I think it makes sense. We will try and reinforce. Where and what number we’ll have to wait and see.

“You don’t just want to panic and bring in anybody that you don’t think will help our cause in the back half of the year, but I think we’ve already shown we are pretty methodical and prudent about our work. We’ll make sure we’ll bring somebody in who is going to help us.”

The absentee list includes Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero. Micky van de Ven and Postecoglou said: “I can’t be critical of this group of players at the moment in any sense. I think it would be unfair for anyone to because what they’re doing is they’re giving absolute maximum effort.

“That’s backed up by the physical parameters you put against what they’re doing. They’re trying to do it in the way that I’m asking them to. So how can I be critical of that? I think that would be hypocritical of me. The players are doing their part. They’re doing it to the maximum of their ability and it’s a credit to them. I still think in the long term that’s going to hold us in good stead.”