There is only one stat that matters and that is the scoreline. Tottenham may have dominated play against Nottingham Forest on Monday evening but once again they came away on the losing side after a 2-1 defeat.
Unfortunately the damage was done early in the first half after goals from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood had given the visitors a 2-0 lead. Ange Postecoglou and Spurs were perhaps lucky it was only the two goals after Wood had seen a goal ruled out for offside by VAR not long after Anderson had opened the scoring five minutes in.
In terms of the stats on the night, Tottenham had 22 shots compared to Forest's three and six of those were on target when Nuno Espirito Santo's side could only manage three. Tottenham dominated possession 70% to 30%, they completed 520 passes to Forest's 241 and their pass accuracy was 88% compared to 68%.
However, it was the East Midlands club who left with all three points in the bag and inflicted an 18th league defeat of the season on Tottenham. The hosts more than had their openings to get something from the game, with Richarlison missing a handful of chances before giving his side some late hope after nodding in Pedro Porro's cross three minutes from time.
Mathys Tel had a big opportunity to reduce the deficit prior to half-time but slashed at the ball when having ample room and time to hit the target. The loanee was a bright spot for Tottenham on the night and was lively throughout.
Tel is now benefitting from an extended run in the Tottenham starting XI and he's starting to show glimpses of his true quality after an up-and-down start to life in N17 so far. The French youngster put in a big shift at Eintracht Frankfurt last Thursday and the same can be said about his performance against Nottingham Forest.
Tel and fellow countryman Wilson Odobert looked the duo most likely to drag the team back into the contest in the first half as they caused Forest some issues with their direct running and trickery. Tottenham managed to have 10 efforts on goal in the first period and Tel was involved in all but two of them, thus highlighting his attacking contribution in the opening 45 minutes. The youngster had four of those attempts himself and set up his teammates on four occasions.
He again started brightly after the restart but he couldn't have that decisive impact in the final third to get Spurs back into the contest earlier than they did after Richarlison's 87th-minute header. Although Tel maybe didn't get the goal or assist that he would have liked in his playing time, he is certainly looking sharper with his increase in minutes after starting the last three games.
A fourth successive start should certainly be on the cards when the team travel to Liverpool this weekend. Always going to take time for him to adapt to the pace and intensity of the Premier League, the 19-year-old is now looking more at home and that can be seen from his numbers from the Nottingham Forest defeat.
It is not yet exactly clear when Son Heung-min will be back from injury but all connected with Tottenham will be hoping it is very soon with the first leg of their Europa League semi-final tie against Bodo/Glimt on the calendar next Thursday. The Spurs captain has struggled to recapture his top form this season and he may now have a real challenger in Tel for his position in the starting XI between now and the end of the season.
Tel is a youngster regarded very highly in the game, with parent club Bayern Munich splashing out £23million on him in 2022 when he was a 17-year-old at Rennes. The best thing is that there is still plenty more to come from him at Spurs providing that he continues to get the regular minutes that have been coming his way of late.
Carry on the way he's going at present and that will be the case. On a night where it's hard to find the positives after an 18th league defeat of the season, Tel was a plus point.