Kulusevski inspires Spurs against Forest but Bissouma red takes shine off win

After Dejan Kulusevski thumped in Tottenham’s second goal, the killer blow for Nottingham Forest, Steve Cooper swivelled on his feet, dragged his fingers down his cheeks and retreated towards the home dugout. Quite how many more times he will be able to call this place home depends on how dimly the Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, views this latest defeat, a fifth in the past six matches. By the time a reinvigorated Bournemouth depart the City Ground on 23 December Forest could, if results do not go their way, find themselves in the relegation zone.

Forest have won one of their past 13 matches and Cooper is on increasingly rocky terrain. Spurs may have finished this game with 10 men, Yves Bissouma seeing red for a crude takedown of Ryan Yates with 20 minutes of normal time to play, but goals from Richarlison and Kulusevski ensured successive victories for Ange Postecoglou’s side. The last time Richarlison managed back-to-back league goals, his manager was Frank Lampard and he counted Mason Holgate, Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli among his Everton teammates.

A minute before kick-off Cooper patrolled the perimeter of his technical area, acknowledging the home supporters ceaselessly singing his name. Forty-one seconds into the match, another rendition. For Miltiadis Marinakis, the only Marinakis present in the directors’ box on the night, it was another reminder – not that the hierarchy needed one – of the Forest manager’s standing among supporters. While Forest seem unconvinced on whether Cooper is the man to lead them forward, there is no doubt among the fanbase. They may have begun the game with 14 points from 16 games – a better tally than at this stage last season – but expectations have heightened after investing heavily in the summer. Postecoglou knows all about that after Spurs’ dream-like start to the season.

Both teams were unchanged, meaning Brennan Johnson lined up against his boyhood club. The forward, who joined Forest aged eight and idolised Robert Earnshaw as a youngster, was sold to Spurs for a club-record £47.5m in the summer and, before being forced off with a head injury approaching the half-hour, he had Tottenham’s best effort. An off-balance Kulusevski moseyed forward and located Johnson, who toe-poked an effort towards the far pocket of the Forest goal but their goalkeeper, Matt Turner, pushed the ball round his right post and to safety. Ben Davies sent a header spinning over from the subsequent corner.

There was little in the way of slick football from Forest, who stuck with the 3-5-2 they switched to last time out against Wolves, but their pragmatic approach almost paid dividends. Moussa Niakhaté, the Forest centre-back, launched a throw into the box and Willy Boly kept the ball alive but Cheikhou Kouyaté, with only Guglielmo Vicario to beat, handled at the crucial moment. A few minutes later Johnson limped off and was given a warm ovation by both sets of fans. Cooper and Postecoglou embraced the 22-year-old on his way towards the tunnel.

Soon after, Yates, another Nottingham boy, made a thudding block to prevent Davies hoicking the ball upfield and responded by asking the fans in the main stand to turn up the volume. There seemed an air of inevitability that, sooner or later, Spurs would strike and they seized the lead in stoppage time. Spurs shifted the ball to the right flank, where Kulusevski cut on to his left foot and whipped a ball, with pace, towards Forest’s six-yard box.

Boly was too slow to sniff out the danger, allowing Richarlison to glance in from close range, beating Turner to the punch. On the touchline, Postecoglou applauded the Brazilian’s fifth goal of the season. Cooper puffed his cheeks before heading down the tunnel.

Forest had a golden chance to earn a route back into the game early in the second half but, unfortunately for Cooper, it fell to probably the last player he would have wished. Anthony Elanga chipped a pass to an unmarked Boly inside the box but the defender spooned his wayward effort over the bar, much to the relief of a Spurs defence guilty of getting sucked in towards the ball. Elanga swept Williams’s low cross into the net on 58 minutes but Spurs’ high line came to the rescue, a VAR review clearly showing he was one of a quartet of Forest players caught offside. Cooper tried to gee up the home support.

Seven minutes later the sucker punch arrived. Turner kicked the ball straight to Kulusevski in the right-hand channel and the winger, determined to prey on the Forest goalkeeper’s error, drove at a back-pedalling Niakhaté. The Swede sashayed on to his right foot and blasted at goal, leathering his strike through the gloves of Turner, who will not want to watch a replay of it anytime soon.