Nottingham Forest will host Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Friday. Last time out, the Tricky Trees battled to a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Spurs defeated Newcastle United 4-1 to get back to winning ways.
Preview (Nottingham Forest vs. Tottenham Hotspur)
With a disappointing performance at Molineux over the weekend, Forest head coach Cooper—one of many names that had been connected to the Tottenham position before Ange Postecoglou signed on the dotted line—was predicted to become the Premier League’s second managerial casualty of the campaign. After the Forest supporters continued to chant Cooper’s name during a 5-0 demolition of Fulham, Tricky Trees owner Evangelo Marinakis decided not to take a gamble. His decision was somewhat justified as Friday’s hosts came home with a respectable portion of the spoils.
Harry Toffolo scored the first goal after 14 minutes. Matheus Cunha’s reply cost the visitors a valuable victory. The turnaround from their humiliation over the week was striking. Cooper leads Forest into their Friday match against the Tricky Trees in the Premier League. They are securely five points ahead of Luton Town in 18th place. Forest has escaped a potentially disastrous fifth straight defeat.
But following an eight-game unbeaten streak at the City Ground from April to November, Forest lost their first two Premier League home games to Brighton & Hove Albion and Everton. The 1-0 loss to the latter was only the team’s third scoreless home game in the top flight. The other two City Ground matches in which Forest failed to score came against Tottenham in August 2022. In that match, the Lilywhites took the lead and went on to win 2-0. They went from setting records early in the season to creating unwelcome history. Tottenham became the first team to score first in five straight games without winning any of them.
Team News
Murillo, a star player for the hosts this season, cautiously exited the field against Wolves with 12 minutes remaining at Molineux. It is believed that the Brazilian was dealing with a stiff hamstring. The latest on Murillo’s condition is eagerly awaited by Forest supporters, but Taiwo Awoniyi (groin) and former Tottenham full-back Serge Aurier (calf) will undoubtedly miss out. Felipe, a fellow countryman, is a like-for-like alternative.
With the possible exception of Felipe replacing the injured Murillo, Forest’s head coach Cooper shouldn’t see any reason to break up the peace following a solid point at Molineux. This would force Chris Wood to once more watch from the sidelines as Anthony Elanga and Morgan Gibbs-White work together in the closing third. No more Tottenham players entered the treatment room after a near-perfect evening against Newcastle. Long-term absentees Alfie Whiteman (ankle), Mannor Solomon (knee), Ivan Perisic (knee), Ryan Sessegnon (thigh), James Maddison (ankle), Rodrigo Bentancur (ankle), Ashley Phillips (ankle), and Micky van de Ven (hamstring) are still out.
Ben Davies should once again fill in alongside Cristian Romero. Eric Dier should be the first person out of the medical bay on the conveyor belt. It might take him another week or two to recover completely from his groin injury. Postecoglou’s choice to switch Son to the left and insert Richarlison back into the attack proved to be a brilliant one against Newcastle. Richarlison just scored his first Premier League goal with his feet for Tottenham. He deserves to stay in a central role.
Nottingham Forest 1 – 3 Tottenham Hotspur
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