Soccer Football - Premier League - Nottingham Forest v Tottenham Hotspur - The City Ground, Nottingham, Britain - December 26, 2024 Tottenham Hotspur's Dominic Solanke heads at goal Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
NOTTINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Nottingham Forest continued their challenge for a Premier League top-four spot as Anthony Elanga's first-half goal secured a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur to put them third on Thursday.
Elanga completed a superb Forest counter-attack in the 28th minute to settle a contest that Tottenham ended with 10 men after former Forest player Djed Spence was sent off.
The result moved Forest provisionally up to third with 34 points, while Tottenham's fourth defeat in five Premier League games left them in 11th with 23 points after 18 games.
Tottenham had edged the opening exchanges with former Forest winger Brennan Johnson going close for the visitors but the hosts struck in devastating fashion.
When Tottenham lost possession on the edge of the Forest area, the ball was played to Morgan Gibbs-White who split the visiting defence with a superb pass and Elanga beat goalkeeper Fraser Forster with a deft finish.
It was enough for Forest to win a fourth successive top-flight game for the first time since 1995 and was especially sweet for manager Nuno Espirito Santo who was sacked by Tottenham three years ago.
Under the Portuguese coach, Forest have been transformed from a side battling to retain their top-flight status, to one that now seems capable of bringing European football back to the City Ground. They now have more points already this season than they finished up with last season in coming 17th.
"It's beautiful for us to go out in the city and enjoy this moment," Espirito-Santo said. "The belief is here but the belief doesn't hide the reality.
"The reality says we haven't achieved nothing yet and we have two days to recover and rest and compete against Everton. This is the reality. We believe we can compete as long as everybody understands every player in the squad is huge for us."
Tottenham are now 11 points behind Forest and pressure is sure to mount on manager Ange Postecoglou whose post-match press conference lasted barely two minutes.
"I still thought we had a fair chunk of (the game) where we could have got something out of the game, but it was always going to be a tight game here," the Australian said.
His side had chances before the break with Matz Sels twice denying Johnson and Son Heung-min hitting the side-netting with a free kick shortly before the interval.
Tottenham had 70% possession but were toothless after the break and their frustration was summed up when Spence was shown a second yellow card deep in stoppage time.
He will now be ruled out of Tottenham's home game against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend.
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Louise Heavens and Christian Radnedge)
