Another frustrating night for Tottenham Hotspur and Ange Postecoglou was made all the harder to take by one player’s reaction to a missed chance.
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Tottenham Hotspur recorded an 18th defeat of the Premier League season against Nottingham Forest in north London on Monday night, and it was no laughing matter for the club.
The visitors had the ball in the back of the net three times in the opening 16 minutes, Elliot Anderson scoring a deflected strike from the edge of the box and Chris Wood nodding home from a cross either side of a Wood strike disallowed for offside. It was, once again, a shambles from Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Tottenham Hotspur did pull one back late on from Richarlison but never truly deserved anything from the match. There was little potency in the box, especially in the first half, with Matz Sels greatest annoyance coming from one of his own goal kicks going astray rather than any headaches from Spurs moves before the break.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder risks laugh at latest Spurs error
Shortly before half time, the London outfit had their best chance. Richarlison, who had been painfully anonymous, finally made a run to get on the end of a Wilson Odobert cross but couldn’t convert a golden chance with his head.
The Brazilian was not helped by the unwanted presence of Pape Matar Sarr in the box. The 22-year-old was lingering in front of goal and got in the way of Richalison’s space, stopping the striker getting the contact he needed.
The two players ended up on sat on the turf after the coming together, helping one another up after a moment on the ground. In that second, Sarr managed a smile and chuckled at the farce of the situation. That moment should be enough to make Tottenham Hotspur fans’ blood boil.
Seconds prior to the Richarlison chance, Sarr had made a run through the Nottingham Forest defence but went far too early. As a result, he found himself offside but stood ball watching rather than making an effort to get back onside - even when the ball found its way into the feet of Odobert, who had been dangerous with his deliveries into the box so far in the match.
Pape Sarr reaction ‘sums up killer instinct’
If Sarr had been switched on and lively, he could have got himself back onside and out of the way of Richarlison, allowing the former Everton man to score. Not doing so was not, in fact, funny.
Looking to bounce back from a 4-2 defeat to Wolves in the league and build momentum for the Europa League semi-final, that Spurs goal could have been crucial. It would have changed the complexion of the Nottingham Forest game going into half time and lifted the stadium. “Is it me or Sarr smiling afterwards just sum up our lack of killer instinct,” one Spurs fan wrote on social media platform X.
While the clash between Sarr and Richarlison might have had an element of humour if Postecoglou’s men were 2-0 up themselves, how Sarr found a laugh in him is a mystery. It’s the type of laidback attitude that Spurs can stink of when conceding goals so easily, as they did against Forest.
With the midfielder having turned in an, at best, shoddy showing until that point anyway, he must surely be one of the first names for Postecoglou to axe from his Tottenham Hotspur starting XI.
In other news, this is how the Tottenham Hotspur players rated against Nottingham Forest with a ‘silly boy’ given a 3/10 for the home side.