Premier League

Tottenham 1 (Richarlison 87)
Nottingham Forest 2 (Anderson 5, Wood 16)

AFTER the highs of a skin-of-the-teeth win away in Europe, the come down: Ange Postecoglou’s Easter eggs are all in one basket with the Europa League written across it.

Premier League games are merely practice matches for the season-redeeming silverware on offer.

But this still surely doesn’t forgive an opening 15 minutes against Nottingham Forest that saw Tottenham concede three cheap goals – albeit one chalked off for a narrow offside.

Whatever the rest of the season holds for Postecoglou, the sense that he is now minding a ship holed below the waterline is unmistakable. When his players let themselves lose another game before they’ve even broken sweat, it feels more and more like it’s on the manager.

Not injuries, not bad luck, not circumstances, not an opponent on fire – but on Postecoglou.

The game was all but done in the opening period. And although it was one way traffic after the second Forest goal went in, it was partly due to the visitors realising Spurs wanted a gentle training session of a challenge rather than a hard fought league tussle.

Speaking after an 18th league defeat that leaves Spurs 16th, Postecoglou said he thought his players were “…outstanding aside from the goals we conceded.” He added: “It’s disappointing, a game we should never lose — another one we let slip. We conceded poor goals and gave ourselves a mountain to climb.”

He recognised how badly his players had begun their task – and how his players had gone missing from the start.

He added: “Concentration and focus for every minute of the game we had Thursday night we didn’t seem to have at the beginning of the game. You can’t give teams two-goal starts.

“On the balance of play we didn’t deserve to lose. Our football was good but that’s been our problem all year. There have been too many games we’ve lost in that manner and that’s why we’re in the position we’re in.”

To come out and allow your visitors to score three goals so quickly – it was a VAR that kept the score barely civilised – means whatever words were ringing in the players ears for the manager as they left the dressing room, they surely weren’t “be as open and welcoming as possible, make our guests feel at home.”

Spurs just let themselves get picked apart.

The opener after five minutes came via an attack that lolloped into wide open spaces where the Spurs midfield might have once been.

Forest took the lead when Elliot Anderson shot from distance, his effort helped on its way past Guglielmo Vicario via the underside of Rodrigo Bentancur’s thigh.

In their next attack, Forest thought they’d bagged their second: on nine, Chris Woods found space between the centre-backs, got on the end of a cross and finished with a bouncer of an effort.

But luckily for Spurs, VAR deemed Woods’ flailing arms to have been offside and the deficit remained the single goal.

Up the other end, Mathys Tel, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison were all auditioning for their future roles in the side and played with urgency, if not application.

One might hope that the opener and the VAR call might have acted as a bucket of cold water and woken a sleepwalking Spurs side: but soon after surviving that second scare, the home side went further behind. Wood has made himself known to centre-backs across the Premier League this season and it was his direct movement that saw him rise and head home on 16.

Micky van de Ven didn’t get anywhere Woods and Vicario was caught between two stools, neither reaching the cross nor blocking the header.

Forest could sense goals were available if and when they needed them, and spent the rest of the half dropping off and conserving their strengths.

It allowed Spurs to seek a way back and give the game a sheen of a contest. Matz Sels in the Forest goal was tested twice from Tel and Odobert that suggested the game might actually have some life in it.

Despite terminally terrible defending, Tottenham looked lively when they went forward. Tel combined well with Djed Spence down the left.

On 39, Tel squandered a golden opportunity after some decent pressure. The winger could only thump his effort high and wide when the goal scoring chance presented itself. A moment later, a move down the right saw Richarlison head wide when he should’ve got more on the ball.

A double change at half-time saw Postecoglou hoik Cristian Romero and van de Ven, handing 45 minutes to Ben Davies and Kevin Danso.

Forest did not exert themselves, allowing the home team to ask the questions, and the pairing of Danso and Davies offered a solid base for a game of attack against defence.

Dejan Kulusevski saw a near post header off a Pedro Porro corner scooped off the line by Harry Toffolo on 63 – the closest effort from a number of balls lobbed into danger areas.

Postecoglou went 4-2-4 for the last 20 minutes, partnering Dominic Solanke up top with Richarlison. Brennan Johnson and Tel were supposed to offer width while Pape Sarr and Bentancur were tasked with knitting it all together.

It was gung-ho stuff and nearly brought benefits.

Richarlison was denied by a wonderful one-handed stop by Sels on 79 and Spurs turned the screw as Forest dropped deeper and deeper.

On 87, after Spurs had launched waves of attacks, Richarlison finally got his radar sorted and headed a chance on the six-yard box home.

Despite a kitchen sink finale, Spurs couldn’t find an equaliser and suffered yet another home defeat in what has become a most miserable of league campaigns.

Postecoglou is just one more defeat away from equalling Ossie Ardiles’ 19 league losses in 1994, the club’s worst league showing.

Even if he wins the Europa League, will he be trusted to take Spurs on a Champions League adventure and all that entails next term? Will he be trusted with a summer transfer war chest?

After performances like tonight, it seems ever more unlikely.

Tottenham: Vicario, Richarlison, Tel, Romero (Davies HT), Kulusevski (Solanke 67), Porro, Spence, Odobert (Johnson 67), Sarr, Bentacur, van de Ven (Danso HT).
Subs not used: Kinsky, Danso, Bissouma, Maddison, Gray.

Nottingham Forest: Sels, Murillo, Williams, Anderson, Gibbs-White (Sosa 90+2), Wood (Awoniyi 74), Toffolo, Dominguez (Yates 57), Elanga (Morato HT), Danilo (Hudson-Odoi 57), Milenkovic.
Subs not used: Miguel, Sangare, Moreno, Abbott.