The race for UEFA Champions League berths will be one of the big focuses on Boxing Day, when fourth place Nottingham Forest host 11th-ranked Tottenham Hotspur.
Forest, led by Spurs’ ex-manager Nuno Espirito Santo, are one of the surprise storylines of the season and lead the pack in the top-four hunt, but it will be a competitive race to the finish line. Only nine points separate Forest from 13th-place Manchester United, meaning 10 teams feel like a spot in Europe’s top club competition is within reach with half the season to go. That includes Spurs, who have all the tools needed to win on Thursday but must find some stability to ensure they can rise up the table in the second half of the campaign.
Here’s what you need to know before tuning in.
How to watch and odds
- Date: Thursday, Dec. 26 | Time: 10 a.m. ET
- Location: City Ground — West Bridgford, England
- Live stream: Peacock
- Odds: Nottingham Forest +135; Draw +260; Tottenham Hotspur +185
Storylines
Tottenham’s up-and-down season hit another round of highs and lows in the last week alone, advancing to the EFL Cup quarterfinals after a 4-3 win over Manchester United and then losing a wild 6-3 game to Liverpool on Sunday. The set of results leaves them with just three wins in their last 11 across all competitions, painting a picture of inconsistency that has frustrated many after an optimistic start under manager Ange Postecoglou last season.
Spurs are still the Premier League’s best-attacking side, leading the league with 39 goals in 17 games, overperforming their expected goals tally of 32.46. It’s a signal that at least something is going right for Postecoglou, who prefers an attack-minded tactical approach and has overseen Spurs’ progress in this department. The team averages 2.3 goals a game in the league this season, a significant increase from their average of 1.9 goals per game last campaign from a similar expected goals and shot count. The goals are coming from a wide range of players, too – five players have seven-plus goals across all competitions, including surprise leading goalscorer Brennan Johnson and new addition Dominic Solanke.
The defense has been a point of contention in recent weeks for Spurs, who have conceded 23 goals in their last 11 games. They have had to play without starting goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and centerbacks Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven for much of this stretch, which has cost them greatly. Vicario’s understudy Fraser Forster is a poor fit for Postecoglou’s tactical approach and has made several individual errors that led to goals, while back-up centerback Radu Dragusin was someone Liverpool successfully targeted and exposed over the weekend. Many have called upon Postecoglou to change up his stylistic preferences to account for the defensive issues, though he is standing by his tactics and suggested that the switch is not as easy as some suggest.
“If people want me to change my approach, it’s not going to change,” Postecoglou said post-match on Sunday, per the Evening Standard. “We are doing it for a reason, we are doing it because we think it will help us to be successful. If people don’t understand the circumstances we are in at the moment, the challenges we have from a squad perspective which are as obvious as you want to make them. I get the idea that people think that I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team. It is what it is. I’m just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want. In the interim we are going to accept there are going to be challenges along the way.”
Projected lineup
Tottenham: Forster, Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence, Sarr, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke
Prediction
Tottenham have an ability to score against most teams, even those as defensively sturdy as Forest, who have conceded just 19 goals in league play this season. The visitors will also have the advantage of playing against a team that does not score a lot – Forest have just 23 goals this season – but their ability to concede off of silly mistakes could force the teams to share the points. Pick: Nottingham Forest 1, Tottenham Hotspur 1
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