Tottenham v Nottingham Forest: Elanga can fuel Forest win | OneFootball

English Premier League

Nuno Espirito Santo can get one over his former club

Nottingham Forest have wobbled lately but can get back on track at distracted Spurs on Monday night, says Dave Tindall...

Spurs' season still alive

Tottenham have suffered a ludicrous 17 defeats from 32 Premier League matches so far this season - their most in a single campaign since 19 losses in 2003-04. Seven of those have come in front of their own fans although they've scored more goals at home than Arsenal. What a weird team.

Talking of the north London duo, both have semi-finals in Europe to look forward to, Tottenham booking their last-four place in the Europa League with a pretty gutsy 1-0 win away to Eintracht Frankfurt after they'd put themselves in a difficult position via a 1-1 draw at home.

Norwegians Bodø/Glimt await in the last four and Tottenham's performance in Germany showed that under-fire Ange Postecoglou can still get a tune out of his side and, just as importantly, the team are still playing for the manager.

Forest still need big finish

Nottingham Forest have had a fantastic season and looked the third best team behind Liverpool and Arsenal for a large chunk of it.

But back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa (2-1 away) and Everton (1-0 at home) have come at just the wrong time. The next six games are now massive.

Newcastle came flying past them by thumping Crystal Palace in midweek and Manchester City, Chelsea and Villa are all major threats to Forest's hopes of a Champions League spot.

Nuno's side can complete double

Forest haven't done the league double over Spurs since 1996-7 but they're in position to do so here having won the reverse fixture 1-0 at the City Ground thanks to Anthony Elanga's 28th-minute winner on Boxing Day.

That ended a run of six straight victories for Tottenham against Forest.

For this one, Tottenham are 29/20 for the win, with Nottingham Forest 13/8 and The Draw 13/5.

Spurs have drawn just four of their 32 Premier League fixtures this season which fits into the perception that they can either be pretty good or really hopeless.

Going into the weekend, only Liverpool had won more away games than Forest's tally of eight and this looks exactly the type of game Nuno Espirito Santo's team can win. Spurs boss possesssion and try to push forward but Forest hurt them on the break.

The Portuguese boss will have that added edge of wanting to put one over the club that got rid of him.

Tottenham have lost their last two games that followed Europa League matches and although you could find other facts to coincide with Spurs defeats given the sheer volume of them, it makes sense.

Postecoglou's team have never been in danger of relegation and European football next season via the league vanished a long time ago. So, all the eggs have gone into one basket. They've been on it in the Europa League but, as they drift around in no-man's land, have struggled to get themselves up for Premier League games.

Forest want this more and they're the bet.

Tottenham have at least managed to net in five of their last six home defeats so there's logic in backing Forest to win and both teams scoring at 7/2.

Elanga and Johnson can make a mark

I'll also try a Bet Builder on two players who have been in the goals.

Firstly, let's go back to the man who decided the first meeting, Anthony Elanga.

Chris Wood has been Forest's goal-getter for most of the season but Elanga has come up trumps recently.

The Swede scored twice in a 4-2 win at Ipswich and then banked the only goal of the game in the home victory over Manchester United.

Between those games he netted against Northern Ireland so the winger has four goals in his last seven games. He's 10/3 to score here.

For Tottenham, Brennan Johnson perhaps doesn't get the credit he deserves as a goalscorer.

The forward has fired home 18 goals in 51 games for Tottenham and Wales so that's better than 1-in-3 over an extended stretch. He's 11/4 to score here.

A goalscorer double combined with a Forest win gives us some tasty odds on the Bet Builder.

Recommended bets

1pt - Back Nottingham Forest to Win and BTTS @ 7/2

0.5pts - Back Anthony Elanga and Brennan Johnson both to Score and Forest to Win @ 35/1

Staked: 71.50pts

Returned: 53.67pts

P/L: -17.83pts

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