Nottingham Forest 2-0 Tottenham: Spurs bounced from EFL Cup by 10-man Forest

Hey, remember last year when Tottenham Hotspur made it all the way to the finals of the EFL Cup? Spoiler alert: they didn’t do that this season. In their third round matchup played at the City Ground, Forest got second half goals from Renan Lodi and Jesse Lingard; Tottenham looked pretty toothless for much of the match.

Forest were reduced to ten men after Orel Mangala was shown a second yellow card in the 75th minute, which might have given some hope that Spurs could complete yet another comeback. But substitute Richarlison had a goal called back for offside and although Spurs had the ball for much of the last 15 minutes, they really didn’t muster much offense. It was a performance that looked pretty phoned in, and Spurs fell to the ten-man Forest by a final score of 2-0.

You want match reactions? I’ve got some! Let’s get weird.

Match reactions

• Other people will disagree with me on this, but I went into this match not caring at all what happened with the final score and hence am not especially upset. It’s somewhat liberating watching Tottenham that way, even when they lose. Y’all should try it.
• You know, it’s kind of impressive just how poorly Tottenham played today. Just an absolute shambles. So bad that it was almost funny, especially when they started getting Olé’d by fans of the worst team in the Premier League.
• Forster was almost the victim of an absolute comedy goal within the first ten minutes after a scuffed and deflected shot went off the post. He might be a bit of a big lunk, but he had some pretty impressive saves on the night that kept the score from being even worse.
• It was... is “good” the right word? not sure... well, it was something seeing Serge Aurier out there on the other side of the pitch. And of course he got the hockey assist. That was predestined.
• I have no idea how the heck Doherty’s shot in the first half didn’t go into the net. Bad luck, I guess? Good shot, though.
• Oliver Skipp looks like he’s starting to round into something closer to form. He’s still a little sloppy, but he’s improving from earlier appearances and he showed some of his athleticism in this match. He needs more minutes.
• Irritated that Bissouma got clattered in the lead-up to Forest’s first goal with no call, but more irritated by the absolutely terrible defense by Matt Doherty and Davinson Sanchez that led to the shot. Who could’ve seen that coming?
• Forest really seemed to be focusing on the right side of Tottenham’s defense and really can’t quite put my finger on why... still thinking...
• Peter Banks was officiating this match like it was a Championship level kick-em-in-the-shins kind of game. Fouls? What are those? To be clear, I’m not blaming the ref at ALL, but it was noticeable.
• Plenty of poor performances to go around, but special mention goes to Davinson Sanchez and Ryan Sessegnon in this match who both had especially forgettable evenings.
• We got rehab minutes for Richarlison! And minutes for Gil! And Spence! Spence in particular looked extremely raw and kind of justified Stellini’s comments about his readiness for Premier League competition. But it’s worth noting that moments after coming on he had a progressive run into the midfield that earned a foul and was more exciting than pretty much anything I’ve seen from our wingbacks this season.
• At least we won’t hear (much) crowing from Arsenal fans after they too lost, falling 3-1 at home to Brighton.
• I’m not going to tell you not to feel embarrassed that we got bounced from a domestic cup by the club currently bottom of the table. Fans have every right to be upset by this performance. It certainly doesn’t speak well of this team when they don’t have literally all of their first choice players. I’ll just say it’s a lot more pleasant over on my side of the fence. Think of all those extra days of rest Spurs will have in the spring!