Tottenham Hotspur suffered their worst defeat of the season on Sunday afternoon, so finding any positives from the game is far from straightforward.
The North London derby was a new low point for Tottenham Hotspur, but at least the 4-1 defeat that day was against the best performing team in the Premier League.
Nottingham Forest were 16th in the Premier League table prior to kick off yesterday, yet thrashed Spurs by a three-goal margin.
Any positivity from Tottenham’s previous two victories is well and truly gone and the pressure is mounting on Thomas Frank.
Here are the three winners and losers from one of the worst Spurs matches in recent memory.
Some Tottenham fans will have been unable to purchase a ticket
Every loyal Spurs supporter would like to get to as many away games as possible, but sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise not to have enough points to get a ticket.
The biggest winners of Sunday’s clash were those who did not travel to the City Ground. Watching the match on TV does not make a defeat any better, but at least it avoids the hours spent getting to and from the game.
Then again, at least the visiting fans were each given a free scarf for their troubles. Perhaps it would have been better to put the money spent on this pointless gesture towards signing a forward in January who can actually remain consistent for more than two fixtures.
Ben Davies is still getting minutes for Spurs
By some miracle, it is almost 2026 and Ben Davies is still making Premier League appearances off the Tottenham bench.
The Wales international was expected to leave the club last summer, but he stuck around and was even named in Frank’s five-man leadership group.
Davies made more defensive contributions in 31 minutes than Djed Spence managed in an hour against Forest and he must be delighted to have continued receiving game time after all these years.
Joao Palhinha is more likely to start for Tottenham after Sunday’s defeat
Frank was heavily criticised for starting Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur together and it seems he actually listened to the feedback, given his recent lineups.
However, Spurs were poor in midfield against Nottingham Forest and this could cause the Danish boss to reconsider his new strategy.
Palhinha came on and immediately got to work making tackles and contributing in the defensive areas. It would be strange not to see the Portuguese star play against Liverpool next weekend, considering he is clearly an improvement on both the holding midfielders who started on Sunday.
Now, let’s take a look at the three losers from Nottingham Forest 3-0 Tottenham.
Archie Gray made a dreadful error
Archie Gray has gone from starting against Burnely to being frozen out of the Tottenham team, only to now be playing pretty much every week.
The young Englishman has shown promise in some of his performances, but he was really poor against Nottingham Forest.
Gray was responsible for the hosts’ opening goal, as he lost possession on the edge of his own penalty box. Other than this, the ex-Leeds United player did very little during the game and failed to win a single duel.
Guglielmo Vicario was at fault for Tottenham again
The negativity surrounding Guglielmo Vicario had gone quiet after a couple of decent performances from the Italian. However, he is back in the firing line after a dreadful display against Forest.
Vicario must take some responsibility for the first goal he conceded. Ultimately it was Gray’s fault, but the goalkeeper had better options than to play the ball to the 19-year-old.
Fast forward into the second half and Vicario had no one to blame but himself for Forest’s second goal. His positioning was awful as Callum Hudson-Odoi’s shot from the left wing went right over his head.
Thomas Frank is the ultimate Spurs loser
Nobody is more responsible for yet another embarrassing Tottenham defeat than Thomas Frank. Being good away from home was the only positive to take from his current tenure, but now even that is gone.
The ex-Brentford manager continues to set up Spurs as if they are a team fighting for a mid-table finish, so it is no wonder they are 11th and just two points off 15th.
Frank still believes Tottenham’s problem is losing duels and misplacing passes, but this is only scratching the surface of what is actually going wrong at the club. Spurs are terrible in attack and something has to change immediately.
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