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Full Record of Spurs -v- Nottingham Forest

Premier        Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag   Pts
Home            5   2   0   3     5-7     6
Away            5   1   1   3     6-8     4
============================================
Total (Prem)   10   3   1   6    11-15    10   1pt per game
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1)   34  20   4  10    76-46    48
Away (Div 1)   34  17  10   7    48-37    50
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Total (Div 1)  68  37  14  17   124-83    98
============================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 2)   13   8   3   2    25-15    19
Away (Div 2)   13   1   6   6    15-25     8
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Total (Div 2)  26   9   9   8    40-40    27
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Total (Prem)   10   3   1   6    11-15    10
Total (Div 1)  68  37  14  17   124-83    98
Total (Div 2)  26   9   9   8    40-40    27
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Grand Total   104  49  24  31   175-138  135
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Last Six Premier League results:-

Nottm F'st -    WLWLWD

Sheff Utd  1-2    Nottm F'st
Nottm F'st 1-2    Sheff Utd
H'dsfield  0-1    Nottm F'st
Newcastle  2-0    Nottm F'st
Nottm F'st 1-0    West Ham
Everton    1-1    Nottm F'st

Spurs      -    WWWWDW
           
Spurs      3-0    Arsenal
Spurs      1-0    Burnley
Norwich    0-5    Spurs
Spurs      4-1    S'hampton
Chelsea    2-2    Spurs
Spurs      1-0    Wolves

Pos          P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 4. Spurs    3  2  1  0   7-3    4    7
10. Nottm F  3  1  1  1   2-3   -1    4

Playing "The New Forest!"

Forest's Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis has certainly put his money behind their quest to maintain the Premier League status they finally regained after winning last season's Championship play-off final.

The last time I counted, Forest had acquired no less than 16 new players. Mr. Marinakis has been Forest's majority shareholder since May 2017. His fortune has been made through shipping and media. He is the president of Olympiacos and a city councillor in Piraeus. Mr. Marinakis is a philanthropist and supports various Greek children's charities.

Until Forest played at Wembley in May this year 163 English football clubs had played cup games at Wembley since April 1992 when Forest made their previous visit. Then, with Roy Keane in their side, they lost a League Cup Final to Manchester United. Keane would move to United a year later. In 1991, of course, Forest had been our victims in our last FA Cup Final. The chant "One Des Walker" became a Spurs staple in subsequent meetings with Forest.

The man who lifted our last FA Cup in 1991 was, of course, the one and only Gary Mabbutt, who represented Spurs in Instanbul for Thursday's Champions League draw in which we have drawn Entracht Frankfurt, Sporting Clube de Portugal and Marseilles in Group D. Our first Group game will be on 5th/6th September. (Confirmed fixtures awaited)

Brian Clough was the manager last time they played at Wembley in 1992. Brian Clough was Forest's manager for over 18 years between 1975 and 1993. It is 23 years since Forest were in the Premier League.

Whilst we have only previously played against Forest in ten Premier League games our points per game record of 1.0 is better only than our records against Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. We did manage our one and only Premier League "double" over Forest in their relegation season of 1998-99. Our last such meeting was at The City Ground in April 1999 when we won thanks to a Steffen Iversen goal.

Forest were promoted last season after gaining only a single point from their first seven league games, after which former Spurs man Chris Hughton was sacked. Steve Cooper (whose father is former top referee Keith Cooper) took over after Steven Reid had looked after the Forest team for one game in September last year.

Forest finished fourth behind Huddersfield in the Championship, but beat The Terriers 1-0 in the play-off final. The match was refereed by retiring official Jon Moss. Despite the use of VAR, Forest escaped a couple of penalty claims. Their goal was an own goal scored by 19-year-old Chelsea loanee Levi Colwill, who is now on loan with Brighton.

Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles made their Spurs debuts against Forest on August 19th 1978. Villa scored our goal in a 1-1 draw. The Forest side included Peter Shilton, Viv Anderson, John McGovern, Kenny Burns, Martin O'Neill, Archie Gemmill, Peter Withe, Tony Woodcock and John Robertson. Forest were the reigning Champions and would go on to win the first of their two consecutive European Cups at the end of the 78/79 season.

Here is a list of Forest's signings (so far!):-

25/06 - Nottingham Forest signed Nigeria forward Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin for a club record fee. The 24-year-old joined Forest on a five-year deal for a reported £17m. Awoniyi scored 20 goals in 43 games across all competitions last season and became Forest's first signing since gaining promotion back to the Premier League. Awoniyi scored Forest's winning goal against West Ham in their first home match of the season.

02/07 - Signed Manchester United keeper Dean Henderson on a season-long loan. Henderson, 25, was keen for first-team football after losing out to David de Gea in the battle to be first choice at Old Trafford.

03/07 - Signed 22-year-old French defender Giulian Biancone on a three-year deal from Ligue 1 side Troyes.

06/07 - Paid a reported £15 million to FSV Mainz for 26-year-old French defender Moussa Niakhate. Niakhate scored 9 league goals in 128 appearances for the German club over the last four seasons. Niakhate won U-21 caps for France, the last of which was in June 2019. Niakhate has suffered a thigh injury and is out of action until late October.

10/07 - Signed 24-year-old left back Omar Richards from Bayern Munich. Born in Lewisham, Richards began his career with Reading. He made just five league starts in his one season in Germany, plus seven appearances as substitute. Richards also appeared as sub in three Champions League games. His Bayern debut was made in a German Cup game last August against Bremer SV. Bayern won that 12-0! (Out with foot injury till October)

11/07 - Forest signed Neco Williams from Liverpool for £17 million. 21-year-old right back Williams spent the latter part of last season on loan with Fulham. Williams has 21 senior International caps with Wales, and has been prominent in Forest's season to date. He is an attacking full back.

15/07 - Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey signed from Burnley. Now 35 and once of Crystal Palace and Wolves, Hennessey joins Manchester United loanee goalkeeper Dean Henderson in the Forest squad. Their keeper of the last three seasons - Brice Samba - has moved to Lens.

20/07 - Forest's busy transfer window continued with a raid on their defeated Championship play-off rivals Huddersfield for 27-year-old Harry Toffolo (left side defence) and 23-year-old midfielder Lewis O'Brien. Toffolo was born in Welwyn Garden City. Both played in the play-off final.

21/07 - Free agent Jesse Lingard - now 29 - became Forest's eleventh incoming signing of the summer. Lingard apparently turned down a move back to West Ham, whose fans threw bundle of fake money onto the pitch when they lost two weeks ago at The City Ground. Six first-teamers from the promotion side were at the club on loan and, as well as their departures, Forest also lost Lewis Grabban, with whom they could not agree a deal, as well as goalkeeper Brice Samba.

31/07 - Yet another signing - 24-year-old Belgian midfielder Orel Mangala from Stuttgart.

13/08 - Forest's signings reached an incredible 14 with the arrival of Emmanuel Dennis from Watford for £20 million and Cheikhou Kouyate, who was unattached following the end of his Palace contract in summer.

14/08 - Signed Switzerland midfielder Remo Freuler from Italian Serie A side Atalanta. The 30-year-old, who has 46 international caps, was Forest's 15th signing of the summer.

19/08 - Confirmed the signing of Wolves 22-year-old midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White for a club record fee of £25 million, plus add-ons that could take the fee as high as £45 million. Gibbs-White was on loan with Sheffield United last season.

Despite all these new additions, Forest do still have players who saw them win promotion such as club captain Joe Worrall, former Bournemouth man Steve Cook, midfielder Ryan Yates and striker Sam Surridge, who scored two goals in Tuesday night's 3-0 Carabao Cup win at Grimsby. Yates had opened the scoring. Another regular last season was former Sunderland and Newcastle midfielder Jack Colback, now 32.

21-year-old attacking midfielder Brennan Johnson attracted a lot of attention in last season's campaign with 16 league goals. Johnson appeared in all 46 of Forest's league games starting 44 of those games. He is another Welsh international and scored the Forest goal in last week's draw at Goodison Park.

Clearly, Steve Cooper's side do not just aim to survive, but to firmly re-establish themselves in the top flight. Whilst they might still need to meld as a unit, they will offer formidable opposition to Spurs, especially in front of a very enthusiastic home crowd. Sometimes they are over-enthusiastic, as demonstrated when they beat Sheffield United in a penalty shoot-out at the end of last season's play-off semi-final.

Apart from September's International break, Spurs will play two games per week now until the World Cup break which begins in mid-November. Antonio Conte's squad will be needed in all its depth. I am posting this preview before the official team news, but I don't see any reason to throw Cristian Romero or Oliver Skipp back into the fray. Especially as Spurs haven't conceded a goal in Sanchez's last five games. I feel we will see more of Richarlison and Lucas Moura in the upcoming games.

Our own Djed Spence, who is yet to appear this season, also played a full part in Forest's Championship success last season, making 39 league appearances (one as sub) and scoring two goals whilst on loan from Middlesbrough.

My prediction is for a 2-0 away win. The game is live on Sky's "Super Sunday", kicking off at 4.30pm.

This will be referee Craig Pawson's 29th game in charge of Spurs. We first experienced his refereeing at Norwich in February, 2014 in a game we lost 1-0. Mr. Pawson's last game in the middle for Spurs was a home defeat against Brighton in April. He was in charge when we beat Leeds 4-0 in February. Mr. Pawson was at The City Grounmd for two FA Cup ties last season. These were Forest's 1-0 third round win over Arsenal, and their quarter-final defeat by the same margin to Liverpool.

· Official site - Five firsts against Forest.

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