After Dejan Kulusevski thumped in Tottenham’s second goal, the killer blow for Nottingham Forest, Steve Cooper swivelled on his feet, dragged his fingers down his cheeks and retreated towards the home dugout. Quite how many more times Cooper will be able to call this place home depends on how dimly the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, views this latest defeat, a fifth in the past six matches. By the time Bournemouth depart the City Ground on 23 December Forest could, if results do not go their way, find themselves in the relegation zone.
Forest have won one of their past 13 matches and Cooper is on increasingly rocky terrain. Spurs finished with 10 men, Yves Bissouma seeing red for a crude takedown of Ryan Yates with 20 minutes to play, but goals from Richarlison and Kulusevski ensured successive victories for Ange Postecoglou’s side. The last time Richarlison managed back-to-back league goals, his manager was Frank Lampard and Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli were among his Everton clubmates.
Richarlison is only one more goal away from doubling last season’s tally in all competitions, after his fifth of the campaign here. “Richarlison is a goalmouth monster,” Postecoglou said. “I’m really pleased with him in training and I was confident that he could go out there and do a job for us. He is in a better space physically and mentally. It was hard for him [last season] but he soldiered on. He is definitely feeling a lot better about himself.”
A minute before kick-off Cooper patrolled the perimeter of his technical area, acknowledging the home supporters ceaselessly singing his name. Forty-one seconds into the match, another rendition. For Miltiadis Marinakis, the only Marinakis present on the night, it was another reminder – not that the hierarchy needed one – of the Forest manager’s standing among supporters.
While the board seem unconvinced on Cooper, there are few doubts among the fanbase. They have 14 points from 17 matches – the same tally as this stage last season – but expectations have heightened after investing heavily in the summer. Postecoglou knows all about that after Spurs’ dream-like start to the season.
Brennan Johnson, who joined Forest aged eight but left for Spurs for a club-record £47.5m in September, went close to scoring against his boyhood club before being forced off with a head injury approaching the half-hour. An off-balance Kulusevski moseyed forward and located Johnson, who toe-poked a first-time effort towards the far pocket of the Forest goal but Matt Turner pushed the ball round his right post and to safety.
There was little in the way of slick football from Forest, who stuck with the 3-5-2 they switched to last time out, but their pragmatic approach almost paid dividends. Moussa Niakhaté, the Forest centre-back, launched a throw into the box and Willy Boly kept the ball alive but Cheikhou Kouyaté, with only Guglielmo Vicario to beat, handled at the crucial moment.
A few minutes later Johnson limped off and was given a warm ovation by both sets of fans. Cooper and Postecoglou embraced the 22-year-old on his way towards the tunnel. Soon after, Yates, another Nottingham boy, made a thudding block to prevent Ben Davies hoicking the ball upfield and responded by asking the fans to turn up the volume.
Yet there seemed an air of inevitability that, sooner or later, Spurs would strike. Kulusevski whipped a devilish ball, with pace, towards Forest’s six-yard box and Boly failed to sniff out the danger, allowing Richarlison to glance in and beat Turner to the punch.
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Forest had a golden chance to earn a route back into the game early in the second half but, unfortunately for Cooper, it fell to probably the last player he would have wished. Anthony Elanga chipped a pass to an unmarked Boly inside the box but the defender spooned his effort over the bar, to the relief of the Spurs defence guilty of getting sucked in towards the ball.
Elanga swept Neco Williams’s cross into the net on 58 minutes but Spurs’ high line came to the rescue, a VAR review showing he was one of a quartet of Forest players caught offside.
“We can’t carry on being shoulda, coulda, woulda,” Cooper said. “We have to stay together. The job means the world to me. I wish it was different, in terms of the results. I know there are talking points around me – I wish that wasn’t the case and we were talking about more points, more wins and the players.”
Twenty minutes into the second half, the sucker punch arrived. Turner kicked carelessly, straight to Kulusevski in the right channel and the Swede preyed on the Forest goalkeeper’s error. Kulusevski drove at Niakhaté, sashayed on to his right foot and blasted at goal, leathering a strike through the gloves of Turner, who will not want to watch a replay anytime soon.
