Tottenham Hotspur (H) 14/12/25

Nottingham Forest 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur

Hudson-Odoi 28', 50'

Sangare 79'

Following on from Forest’s last away win in Europe since 1995, the Reds’ attention turned back to the Premier League as they welcomed Tottenham to the City Ground. Forest’s league form has taken a slight drop off as they had lost two of their last three. Spurs ended a run of five league games without a win last match week as they defeated Brentford 2-0. Their away form has been better than their home form as they’ve registered four wins on the road, the most in the league behind Crystal Palace.

Dyche made three changes to his side that lost 3-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. John Victor replaced the injured Matz Sels for his Premier League debut whilst Hudson-Odoi and Murillo were bought back in. Thomas Frank named an unchanged XI from the Brentford game. Spence retained his place in the starting eleven whilst Johnson was on the bench, both players part of the squad that earned Forest promotion back to the Premier League.

Spurs haven’t won consecutive league games since August in their two opening games but they would have to stop Forest getting three successive league wins against them.

Recently, Forest haven’t started games well but from the off, they looked up for it. Just after five minutes, the hosts came so close to a lead. Savona lofted in a cross from the right byline after linking up with Hutchison. Ibrahim Sangare made a run into the box to get his head on the ball but his effort could only strike the left post. The ball rebounded to Jesus but his shot was blocked by Bentancur. This block fell to Williams on the edge of the box as he chested the ball, let it bounce and struck it well on the volley. The effort was hit into the floor but as it bounced back up, Vicario pulled off a great save to keep it out.

This woke Spurs up after their slow start but they couldn’t create any real chances for their control of possession. Instead, it was the Reds who took the lead. The visitors were passing it around the back but Hudson-Odoi was putting Vicario under pressure so Archie Gray dropped deep to the edge of the box to give him an option. However, he was unaware Sangare was over his shoulder ready to pounce, which is exactly what he did. Sangare dribbled towards goal and he looked to have taken too heavy a touch that Vicario could recover but before the ‘keeper could gather, the Ivorian saw Hudson-Odoi to his right ready to tap into an empty net to give Forest the lead.

The visitors did respond well to going a goal down. On the left, Spence fired in a low cross, hoping one of his teammates would get on the end of it. Instead, it hit Gray on its way into the box and went into the air. Grey spun and hit it on the volley with a lovely technique but John Victor got down well to his right to make the save. This would end up being Spurs’ only shot on target in the game.

Forest came went into the break with a deserved lead which was quickly doubled after the second half had kicked off. Hudson-Odoi was up against Bentancur on the left and the winger kept changing speed and cutting back. He finally decided to put a ball into the box with his right foot but instead it went all the way into the net, looping over Vicario and creeping in just before the far post. We’ll never know if it was a shot or a cross. Just like the first goal, Sangare was the man that got the assist. Hudson-Odoi now has only his second brace in his Premier League career.

Thomas Frank turned to his bench to try and impact the game but Forest were seeing the game out brilliantly. They defended everything that came their way whilst continuing to carry an attacking threat. Sangare’s afternoon was one of his best in the Garibaldi but one thing was missing to round of his performance: a goal. If it came, no one expected it to come like that. Hudson-Odoi broke into the box from the left but was quickly getting closed down so he laid off to Sangare. The midfielder ran onto the pass from 25 yards out and struck it first time. It sailed perfectly towards goal before hitting the inside of the right post and going in. That is only his second goal in a Forest shirt.

To try and round off a brilliant afternoon for the Reds, Morgan Gibbs-White stood over a free-kick from around 25 yards out. He managed to get it over the Spurs’ wall but Vicario got down well to save it. Forest fans were enjoying themselves as they cheered every pass their side completed. They would also be pleased to see their side creeping further away from the relegation zone.

Sunday was probably our best performance across a full 90 all season. The quality was showing on the pitch but the work rate was there too from everyone. Everything that was lacking with hard work against Everton was on show. My man of the match was Sangare for not only his goal contributions but for his performance. We are really going to miss him when he goes to AFCON but hopefully Douglas Luiz can stay fit. Hudson-Odoi was back to his best but once again, I was really impressed with Hutchinson, especially his defensive side because he was very willing to get back and help out. Jesus deserved a goal for his performance too; he kept the Spurs’ defence occupied all afternoon and his hold up play was excellent. If we keep this up, we will be climbing up the league.

Forest: John Victor; Savona, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangare, Anderson; Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi (Ndoye 90’); Igor Jesus (Douglas Luiz 85’)

Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario; Spence (Davies 59’), Van de ven, Romero, Porro; Grey (Bergvall 59’), Bentancur (Palhinha 59’); Kolo Muani (Tel 80’), Simons, Kudus (Johnson 80’); Richarlison