FootyChatter.com

By RIATH AL-SAMARRAI, CHIEF SPORTS FEATURE WRITER Published: 03: 49 AEDT, 23 March 2026 | Updated: 05: 11 AEDT, 23 March 2026 71 View comments There was a moment towards the end here, after Tottenham had supplied yet more evidence of their inadequacies for this league and that stadium, when the corner filled by Nottingham Forest fans burst into song. It was catchy and got to the heart of a point that had been lost on no one: ‘Morgan Gibbs-White, he stayed because you’re s***e. ’ If anyone from Spurs had the appetite to mount a counterargument, then this was not the day for it. Not the season, either. They are dismal. They are gutless. They are a club that has operated with sheer cowardice at an institutional level across multiple transfer windows and, right now, as this campaign enters its championship rounds, they are close to entering the Championship itself. For a while that has seemed unthinkable. Possible but improbable. Too big. But they aren’t and this was the sort of match that proved it. The sort that could not be lost and the sort they have lost over and again, a tortured echo of the home game against Crystal Palace three weeks ago. When the pressure is on, they crumble; when they need to step up, they fall. A second leg against Atletico Madrid when the tie is over? They can turn it on. But not when it counts against a side with some fight in them. Tottenham were humiliated 3-0 at home by Nottingham Forest to deepen their relegation fears Igor Tudor now has one point in five league games and his position is under serious scrutiny There was a mood of despair at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after another dire defeat Tottenham (4-4-2): Vicario 6; Spence 6 (Bergvall 46, 5. 5), Danso 6, Romero 6. 5, Van de Ven 6 (Udogie 46, 5); Porro 5, Gray 7 (Gallagher 84), Sarr 6, Tel 6. 5 (Kolo Muani 67); Richarlison 5. 5 (Simons 67), Solanke 5. 5. Subs not used: Kinsky, Dragusin, Souza, Palhinha, Gallagher. Booked: Udogie Manager: Igor Tudor 5 Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels 7; Aina 6, Milenkovic 8, Murillo 7, Williams 7. 5; Sangare 7 Anderson 7. 5; Hutchinson 6. 5 (Ndoye 80), Gibbs-White 7, Jesus 7 (Awoniyi 70, 7); Hudson-Odoi 6. 5 (Yates 70, 6. 5). Subs not used: Ortega, Morato, Dominguez, Netz, Bakwa, Mc Atee. Booked: Sangare Manager: Vitor Pereira 6. 5 Referee: Michael Oliver 7 Will it cost Igor Tudor his job? That remains to be seen. In any case, he departed the stadium soon after this match because of a family situation. That provided some perspective. It’s only a ball game. But it is also a ball game that doesn’t seem to suit Tottenham at present. Nor does this kind of battle, admitted with some honesty by Tudor’s assistant, Bruno Saltor, who gave a damning assessment of how a strong first half gave way to an abject capitulation: ‘We were unable to deal with the weight of the game. ’ That is more of an indictment than he may have meant but the truth of it was unmistakable. For that, more credit goes to Forest and Vitor Pereira, who are facing identical pressures but emerged with three goals and a clean sheet. Not bad from a side that has not scored so many in a single league game since December. That was against Tottenham, too, by the way. The details of this repeat could be told in Spurs’ shortcomings, because we can say the same thing about each of the goals scored by Igor Jesus, Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi - no marking. No busted guts. No chase. No clue. Forest were their opposite in every way. Pareira’s take was telling on that front: ‘I asked them before the game how deeply they wanted to be in the Premier League next season. How much can you sacrifice of yourselves to achieve it? ‘If we want a lot, we need to do a lot. This is the spirit I want when they come back from international duty. ’ But this was a huge result for Nottingham Forest who went three points clear of West Ham Morgan Gibbs-White, a transfer target for Spurs last summer, scored a second after Igor Jesus gave Vitor Pereira's side a first-half lead Taiwo Awoniyi rubbed salt into the Tottenham wounds as he made it 3-0 to Forest late on Fair play, they delivered on his brief, while Tottenham merely reaped what has been sewn long-term by those members of the Lewis family involved the running of the club. The fact it was Gibbs-White who killed this game was poignant – Spurs had effectively signed him in the summer but wouldn’t throw in the extra few quid to make it certain and so that Forest chant really resonated. Spurs fans? They mostly stayed to the end and can take no blame for the mood here. It was immense, from the moment a pre-match protest was abandoned in favour of blue and white smoke bombs and a message of unified support. They created a superb atmosphere and that fed into a frantic game. For a time, Tottenham had the better of the chaos. Archie Gray, excellent in midweek, was strong again here - he created the first opening by pinging a 50-yard dart from right to left, pitching Mathys Tel against Ola Aina. Tel skinned the full back and had his shot blocked. Across the half, Richarlison would go on to head wide, Jesus glanced against his own bar, and Tel had further success in his duel with Aina. But they weren’t making it count. Over and again, we have made that observation, and just as often we have seen Spurs pay for their deficiencies. So it came to pass here. Forest had offered only moderate threats, and nothing to stress Guglielmo Vicario and his hernia pain, but with 45 played that changed on both fronts. First, Igor forced Vicario into nudging over the bar and from the subsequent Williams’ delivery, Tudor was failed by poor marking, with Jesus allowed a free header. The bloke didn’t even need to jump for it. Naturally, we might ask why none of the grappling was penalised, but it wasn’t isolated to any one side. They fouled each other and the easiest call from Michael Oliver was evidently to punish none of it. Clearly, it’s an area of the game that officials need to address. West Ham lost 2-0 to Aston Villa to keep Tottenham outside of the relegation zone, but Spurs are in serious relegation trouble and now face a three-week wait until their next game As for Tottenham, their fix is infinitely more complicated. Tel hit the bar as they chased a quick retaliation, before Tudor took matters into his own hands at the break, hooking both Micky Van de Ven and Djed Spence in the hope that new full-backs might be the answer. It succeeded only highlighting that the decision to use Van de Ven at left-back was daft in the first place. Add it to the list. The defensive weaknesses continued into the second half, signalled when Williams was gifted a free header, saved well by Vicario, before the killer strike of Forest’s second goal. Callum Hudson-Odoi made it with an easy skip around Pedro Porro and Tel permitted the space for Gibbs-White by paying no attention to his run. The strike was decent but Vicario should have saved it. By the close, it didn’t matter if it was a deficit of two or three, but a third did come through Awoniyi and again the marking was weak, Kevin Danso the culprit this time. Forest are fighting to the end. Forest have given themselves a solid chance. Tottenham can say neither of those things.

Share what you think

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mail Online.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual.   Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on Mail Online. To do this we will link your Mail Online account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.