Owen Sanders
Roberto De Zerbi’s side arrived at the City Ground already searching for answers. Two Premier League games gone, two defeats suffered, five goals conceded and not a single one scored in reply. Losses to Brentford and Newcastle United had already raised eyebrows among the Tottenham faithful, and this trip to Nottingham offered a chance to turn things around.
There was at least one bit of good news before kickoff. Savio shook off a minor muscle issue to earn a place in the starting eleven, building on the promise he showed in his eye catching debut against Charlton Athletic in the EFL Cup.
Even so, the former Manchester City winger could not conjure the spark Spurs so badly needed. If anything, it was Oliver Glasner’s Forest who looked more likely to find a breakthrough. They thought they had one too, when Neco Williams bundled the ball home, only for the goal to be chalked off after a VAR review spotted a handball.
A drought with no modern precedent
The numbers tell their own uncomfortable story. Tottenham posted 1.57 expected goals to Forest’s 0.65 and still somehow walked away without finding the net, missing two clear opportunities along the way.
That means Spurs have now failed to score in their opening three Premier League fixtures of a season for the first time in the club’s history, and the first time in more than fifty years across the entire top flight. You have to go back to the 1974-75 campaign for the last comparable stretch, a season Tottenham eventually finished in 11th place, splitting their results almost perfectly into 14 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats.
A point gained, but only just
There was a silver lining of sorts. The draw at the City Ground finally got Tottenham off the mark in the table, lifting them out of the relegation zone, at least for now. Should Aston Villa beat or even draw with Hull City in the later kickoff, Spurs will find themselves right back in the bottom three by the end of the day.
Questions for De Zerbi
De Zerbi shuffled his pack for the trip north, bringing in Savio, Conor Gallagher and Destiny Udogie in place of Archie Gray, Mateus Fernandes and Andy Robertson. He stuck with Omar Marmoush up top, but the Egyptian forward could not muster a single shot on target and squandered his one clear sight of goal.
It was not until the 84th minute that De Zerbi turned to Dominic Solanke, sending him on with barely enough time to leave a mark at a ground that has usually been kind to him. Solanke had a hand in six goals across four previous league visits to the City Ground, Forest included a hat trick for Bournemouth back in 2023, though there was no reason to assume that record would simply repeat itself on demand.
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