MY ACCOUNT
Nottingham Forest have made a solid start to their first Premier League season since 1998-99 but Steve Cooper’s men face their toughest challenge yet when they welcome Tottenham to the City Ground on Sunday.
Considered by some as dark horses in the title race, Tottenham have started the campaign with two wins and a draw and will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start.
Team news
Forest boss Cooper continues to bed in the club’s many summer signings but will be without defensive pair Moussa Niakhate and Omar Richards for this contest. Midfielder Jack Colback is a doubt.
The visitors could be missing key defender Cristian Romero once again along with midfielder Oliver Skipp, while Lucas Moura and Bryan Gil are likely to face late fitness tests ahead of this match.
The stats
Tottenham performed well against the Premier League’s lesser lights last season, winning eight of their 12 matches against the bottom six.
The north London club should have chances against Forest, who have conceded 61 shots in their first three Premier League matches this season.
But Cooper’s men can draw confidence from the fact they have lost only two competitive matches at home in 2022.
Prediction
Four points from three matches – two of which were on the road – as well as an EFL Cup triumph over Grimsby represents a decent start to the campaign for newly promoted Nottingham Forest.
They have spent big this summer, bringing in 15 players on permanent deals to boost their chances of achieving survival and maybe more, but Sunday will be their first meeting with one of the so-called ‘Big Six’ clubs in the league.
And in Tottenham, they will be facing a side expected to go well this season under Antonio Conte.
Spurs started the season with a 4-1 thrashing of Southampton but were 1-0 down in that match after 12 minutes and in the game that followed against Chelsea, they were second best despite drawing 2-2.
They then put in a laboured 1-0 win at home against Wolves last time out, having lost the shut count 20-11, so it is fair to say their performances have been lacking.
But picking up results when not playing particularly well is characteristic of the best teams and Spurs fans know there is plenty more to come from their team.
They should have more opportunities against Forest, who allowed Newcastle 23 shots and each of West Ham and Everton 19 shots, and in Heung-min Son, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski, they have the attacking players to capitalise.
A Spurs win looks likely in this one but it should also be a game full of goals, with Forest also carrying their own attacking threat in Welsh wonder Brennan Johnson and summer signing Taiwo Awoniyi.
A Spurs win and at least three goals looks the most likely outcome at the City Ground, where Forest’s league games averaged 2.83 goals per game last term.
