Tottenham drew 0-0 at Nottingham Forest, extending their winless start to the Premier League season. For the third successive league match, Spurs failed to score and this time they did not even muster a shot on target. Excluding a 5-1 win against a Charlton B team in the Carabao Cup, their season so far reads: five goals against and none scored.
Williams goal ruled out
For a couple of minutes Nottingham Forest thought they had added to that goals-against tally, but Neco Williams was adjudged to have handled when stooping to head in on the goalline as Sandro Tonali and Jan Paul van Hecke attempted to prevent Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected effort bobbling towards the net.
Spurs struggle in attack
The mood music surrounding Roberto De Zerbi has been overwhelmingly positive since the Italian arrived at the end of March and led the rescue mission; see the Birra Moretti-themed flag on show in the away end here. But Spurs, for whom Mykhailo Mudryk arrived as a late substitute for his first competitive appearance for 645 days, still struggled in front of goal. Dominic Solanke, another late sub, headed on to the roof of Matz Sels’s net on 88 minutes and that was as good as things got for the visitors.
Where was all the firepower? Last season’s top goalscorer, Richarlison, is training separately from De Zerbi’s first team after rejecting an offer from Everton and not in Spurs’s 25-man squad.
Debutants and near misses
There were glimpses of quality from the Spurs debutant Savio, a £75m arrival from Manchester City, but they were just that. Tonali, a £92.5m buy from Newcastle, impressed defensively more than anything else. Apart from Gibbs-White’s effort in the buildup to Williams’ disallowed goal, Forest’s sole shot on target was a 30-yard daisy-cutter from James McAtee.
No wonder both teams remain winless. Spurs’s home game with Everton next weekend has just taken on another layer of significance and the same applies for Forest and their trip to Aston Villa.
