Nottingham Forest star who “defied physics” was even better than Elanga & Gibbs-White – opinion

Nottingham Forest returned to third place in the Premier League table on Monday night after beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 away.

The Tricky Trees are now three points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for a Champions League place for the 2025/26 campaign.

Goals from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood helped seal victory for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on the night, while Richarlison’s late goal ultimately came to nothing.

Anthony Elanga’s performance against Spurs

Anthony Elanga was one of the stars of an impressive first half that saw Forest lead 2-0 at the break when he set up the second goal.

The Sweden international provided a teasing pass that gave Wood the chance to beat Guglielmo Vicario to make it 2-0, with a superb through ball that caused chaos for the Spurs defenders and goalkeeper.

But apart from the “big chance” he created, Elanga missed both of his dribbling attempts and lost five of his six tackles before being sent off.

Forest’s other attacking midfielder, Morgan Gibbs-White, had a minimal impact with zero key passes, zero “big chances” created and a pass accuracy of 76%.

Meanwhile, the rare Harry Toffolo, who started his first Premier League game of the season, was even better than Elanga and Gibbs-White with his excellent performance at left-back.

Why Harry Toffolo may have saved his Nottingham Forest career

The former Norwich City and Huddersfield Town left-back had only made three appearances in the top flight, all as a substitute, before being named in the starting eleven on Monday night.

He was an unused substitute in the Premier League 15 times and has now given Nunu a headache ahead of the final games of the campaign after a fine performance.

Toffolo’s best moment of the game came in the clip above, when Alan Smith called for his “probable physical” removal after his on-the-line intervention prevented Dejan Kulusevski from scoring.

It was a crucial moment in the game, as Spurs should have pulled a goal back with around 30 minutes to go, giving them plenty of time to press for an equaliser, rather than the three minutes they had after Richarlison’s 87th-minute goal.

Against Spurs

Harry Toffolo

minutes

90

Distances

4

Blocks

2

Passes + interceptions

4

Face-offs won

3/5

Dribbles passed

1x

Statistics via Sofascore

As you can see from the table above, the left-back’s all-round display over the 90 minutes was impressive, with two blocks, four tackles and interceptions combined, and four clearances to go along with his goal-line heroics.

These statistics suggest he was even better than Elanga, whose all-round performance was poor, apart from his brilliant assist, and Gibbs-White, who struggled throughout the game, as the full-back played a great role in helping Forest secure all three points.

Perhaps he has now forced himself into Nuno’s plans for the rest of the season, in his bid to qualify for the Champions League, after sitting on the bench for most of the campaign so far.