premier league game 33     april 21st 2025

Tosspots 1 Richarlison 87

Nottingham Forest 2 Anderson 5, Wood 16

x-GAMES x-Selection Nuno Espirito Santo's team selection was wrong. Where was Yates? Where was Hudson-Odoi? And how was part timer Toffolo supposed to cope with Tel? There were weaknesses everywhere which Spurs could exploit. x-First Goal Anderson's goal should never have happened. After superbly saving a Morgan Gibbs-White shot, Vicario was beaten by Anderson's speculator after it grazed a defender's leg and evaded the goalkeeper's glove. There is really no accounting for bad luck. x-Second Goal This goal was clearly offside, because an inch of Wood's shoulder broke the offside plane. Had he been onside, Vicario would have saved easily. x-Third Goal Vicario was clearly impeded in his attempt to reach Elanga's inswinging cross which was nodded in by Wood. Even if he was impeded by his own men, or even if he wasn't impeded at all, referee Bankes should have stepped in and disallowed the goal for the sake of consistency if nothing else. x-Spurs' Goals In the first half, Spurs should have scored six times. The fact that they didn't has nothing to do with Forest's defensive resilience but is simply down to the absence of an alternative reality in which Spurs won the game 10-2. x-Reality. x-Changes Half time substitutions confirmed Nuno's wholly negative mindset. Forest's five at the back turned their defence into huge black hole which sucked the life out of the Spurs attackers, some of whom disappeared completely. This is not the kind of football the viewing paying public want to see. Granite defences are a thing of the past, like Roman testudos, and have no place in the beautiful game. x-Matz Sels There's something odd about Matz Sels. How Forest have endowed this giant heavyweight with the agility of a cat is very suspicious. His match-winning performance in this game and throughout the season requires urgent investigation. We must no longer be fobbed off with spurious "best keeper in the league" claims. x-Toffolo Harry Toffolo's bicycle kick clearance off the line may turn him into a Forest legend, but the truth is that (a) it could have gone anywhere, (b) he saw the chance to cement his position in the side, and (c) he was showing off to his son in the crowd. Such commitment and emotion is, quite frankly, embarrassing. x-Spurs Goal Spurs did manage to get the goal they fully deserved when Richarlison headed past the floundering Sels in the 87th minute. Richarlison did well and could prove invaluable to Spurs as long as his neck-gangrene can be prevented from reaching his brain. x-Referee Referee Bankes provided some support for Spurs' effort by allowing Romero free rein to break Anderson's legs, but in the end his tentative performance gave all three points to Forest. x-Nuno Espirito Santo Beneath his mature good looks and benign presence there lies a seething devil greedy for revenge. Spurs discarded him after a few months, recognising that dysfunctional flair was more important than patient team-building and results. This match proved they made the right decision. x-Buster Cogloo Criticism of Buster Cogloo, that he is a bit of a dick with the tactical guile of a wombat, is way wide of the mark. You could see from his interview that he cared deeply about his shoes and you could hear his emotion in that gravel tip of a voice. "We shudna lost that" was not meant to disrespect Forest, for this has been his assessment after every Spurs' loss this season. x-Position Forest climb back to 3rd position. The main driver of their success is the apparent desire to show what a bloody disaster all these x-Statistics are, but we hold firm to our belief that data-driven analysis is the way forward in football, bringing joy to millions and employment for people who can't do anything useful. Close program.