Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Nottingham Forest: Harry Kane’s brace leads Spurs to victory

After a tough three-game stretch that felt like pure agony, seeing Tottenham Hotspur return to winning ways over Nottingham Forest was nice.

Giving Richarlison a chance to start after his recent comments proved to be the best choice possible as the Brazilian forward looked to have finally scored his first Premier League with Spurs. Receiving a brilliant ball from Oliver Skipp and splitting the Forest backline, Richarlison let the ball bounce twice before going near post and firing his shot over Keylor Navas. Seemingly holding up the shush celebration, VAR had a look and determined Richarlison was offside by the slimmest of margins.

Devastating to not see Richarlison pick up the first goal of the game, he wouldn’t let the decision stop him from creating chances. In the 20th minute, he dribbled his way into the box and crossed toward the middle for Son Heung-min who found Pedro Porro in the box. Making a quick decision, Porro delivered a chipped cross to the 6-yard box for Harry Kane to outleap two Forest players and place his header brilliantly to the right corner, away from Navas.

Already helping create one chance for the team RIcharlison created another by winning a penalty after getting a brilliant ball from Kane in the box. Making a run to recover the ball and possibly shoot or pass, Forest’s Joe Worrall took Richarlison down and awarded a penalty. Kane converted the PK with a strike down the middle with a blasting strike, giving him 20 Premier League goals on the season for the sixth time.

Scoring two first-half goals seemed unheard of but the presence alone of Richarlison created more goals for Spurs in the second half.

Receiving a great ball down the line to have a two-on-tow chance with Son as his target, Richarlison’s first cross amounted to nothing before he redeemed himself on his second attempt and found Son in the 6-yard box. Son converted the strike with his left foot as he went between the legs of JonJo Shelvey and gave Spurs a 3-0 lead.

Forest would end the clean sheet off a corner with Felipe beating Kane to allow Worrall at the back post to head in an easy chance.

After allowing the goal, Spurs contained to look for the fourth goal with substitutes Lucas Moura and Dejan Kulusevski narrowly missing out on the party.

Forest won a penalty after a Kulusevski handball was looked at by VAR and Craig Paulson. It didn’t look intended but it was on the line and in the area, thus making it a penalty. Who knows anymore with handbells but Forster answered the challenge, saving Ayew’s poor take as he dove to his right and gave a punch to the ball.

Notes:

• Richarlison had a fire lit under him after comments he made following the AC Milan defeat. He showed it as he contributed to all three goals and should have had the opening goal of the game.
• The front three finally broke out of its cold spell, as the three fired on all cylinders. Yes, it was against a relegation battle side, but it's good to see Spurs get out of a funk spell with the most important stretch of the season beginning.
• Sonny is one goal away from becoming the first Asian player to 100 Premier League goals. It would be a great milestone to achieve in all but damning season he’s had so far.
• Porro looks more and more comfortable as he’s put together great crosses into the box
• The partnership of Porro and Richarlison could be what’s needed to get the attack rolling down the stretch
• Forster has done a good job since coming in for the injured Hugo Lloris