Nottingham Forest are back on the road this weekend, and it is another trip to the capital for Steve Cooper and his side.
The Reds will be well acquainted with visits to London in the final weeks of the season. After the game at West Ham a fortnight ago, it is Tottenham Hotspur next up, with Brentford, Chelsea and Crystal Palace still to come.
Making a start on improving their away form is the aim for Forest against Antonio Conte’s men. Ahead of the game, here is our round-up of the latest goings-on Trentside.
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Winter wonderland
The Nigel Doughty Academy was covered with a layer of snow on Thursday as the Reds went through their paces. Some were more used to the arctic conditions than others.
For Brazilian Danilo, it was the first time he had experienced this particular peculiarity of the English weather. Meanwhile, Gustavo Scarpa posted footage on Instagram of Keylor Navas looking out of the window with a little trepidation.
“Danilo has never seen snow before. He was like, ‘what’s this?!’. We got a great picture of us all together after training,” said Cooper.
“Training in the snow became unavoidable because it came down so quick. An hour before we actually trained it was fine, and then by the time training came around it was snowy. But we trained.”
Travel sickness
Before away games, Cooper brings up Forest’s form on the road before anyone else does in his pre-match press conferences. He is keen to get in there first, rather than shy away from the issue.
He wants his players to “own up to, face up to and not ignore” the stats, even though they don’t make for particularly pleasant reading. And he continues to encourage his squad to talk about the matter and voice their opinions on how to go about turning it around.
The Welshman, who went to watch Spurs’ midweek Champions League game, has stressed, however, that from a positive perspective, it is something the Reds are capable of changing. And it is in their own hands to do so.
“We’re working really hard, we’re talking about it, we’re thinking about strategies, we’re thinking about what we can do to improve things,” he said. “Players are involved in the process, like they always are with everything we do here. It’s a challenge we are facing up to.”
Spurs stats
This will be the Reds’ first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. While they toppled Tottenham in the Carabao Cup in November, the reverse league fixture between the teams seems an age ago. Indeed, it will likely be a very different Forest line-up to that which lost 2-0 in August.
The starting XI that day was: Henderson; Worrall, Cook, McKenna; Williams, Yates, O’Brien, Toffolo; Lingard, Johnson, Gibbs-White. Of that team, Worrall, Johnson and Gibbs-White are likely to be the only starters this time around; perhaps Jesse Lingard, if Cooper opts to mix things up, and Ryan Yates if he is fit enough.
Given the Reds’ results on the road, even a draw could perhaps be seen as a positive to build upon. But don’t bank on that happening… in 11 Premier League fixtures between the two sides, there has been only one stalemate.
That was back in March 1995, when it finished 2-2 at the City Ground. In 2023, Spurs are one of two sides yet to register a draw in the league since the turn of the year.
Ryan’s return
Yates made an almost immediate impact when he came off the bench against Everton, setting up Johnson’s second goal. It is hard to escape the thought that Forest have missed him while he has been out.
The Reds have won once while he has been sidelined. Not that you could put it down to his absence alone. But it is certainly a boost to have him back.
Last weekend’s assist was his second of the season in the league, putting him on the same tally as Johnson. Only Gibbs-White, with five, has more.
He is yet to bank his first Premier League goal, but he is fifth in the Forest rankings for average shots per game, with 1.3. Gibbs-White (1.9), Johnson (1.6), Scarpa (1.5) and Moussa Niakhate (1.5 from two appearances) ahead of him, according to whoscored.com.
Given the way he has taken to the top-flight, it is perhaps no surprise Yates has admirers elsewhere, with Liverpool among them. That’s not to suggest concrete transfer interest or that the Reds should be worried about losing him any time soon, but it is testament to how well he has settled into the Premier League.
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